New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court regarding the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act that even private schools will now have to keep 25% of their seats for students from weaker and economically disadvantaged sections.
Attorney general G E Vahanvati said before a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar that if the schools insist on absolute autonomy, the goal of integrated universal elementary education will be compromised.
Responding to the challenge to the constitutional validity of RTE Act by private schools arguing that it frustrated their fundamental right to trade, Vahanvati said that the government had made a provision to reimburse private schools the expenses incurred for admitting such students in 25% of its seats.
Therefore, under the balancing principle, the autonomy of the institutions to admit students of their choice must be subject to admitting 25% students belonging to weaker and disadvantaged sections, he said.
Vahanvati further added that the RTE Act was enacted to secure the fundamental right to education of children and steps taken by the government to further their right under Article 21-A of the Constitution could not be construed as stifling the private schools' right to trade under Article 19(1)(g).
He also said that admission given to students from weaker and disadvantaged sections would help build a heterogeneous population of school children across caste, class and gender lines and promote social cohesion.
The Attorney general said the relative importance of children's right as against the right to establish and administer a school was internationally recognized. The autonomy claimed by private schools must yield to the larger social imperative underlying the right to life under Article 21 and allowing the supremacy of 'autonomy' would be detrimental to the constitutional goals of equality and inclusiveness, he said.
Learning occurs not merely from instruction imparted within the four walls of the classroom but from the classroom ethos and from interactivity between children from different backgrounds � different castes, different religions, different socioeconomic backgrounds, Vahanvati added.
Attorney general G E Vahanvati said before a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar that if the schools insist on absolute autonomy, the goal of integrated universal elementary education will be compromised.
Responding to the challenge to the constitutional validity of RTE Act by private schools arguing that it frustrated their fundamental right to trade, Vahanvati said that the government had made a provision to reimburse private schools the expenses incurred for admitting such students in 25% of its seats.
Therefore, under the balancing principle, the autonomy of the institutions to admit students of their choice must be subject to admitting 25% students belonging to weaker and disadvantaged sections, he said.
Vahanvati further added that the RTE Act was enacted to secure the fundamental right to education of children and steps taken by the government to further their right under Article 21-A of the Constitution could not be construed as stifling the private schools' right to trade under Article 19(1)(g).
He also said that admission given to students from weaker and disadvantaged sections would help build a heterogeneous population of school children across caste, class and gender lines and promote social cohesion.
The Attorney general said the relative importance of children's right as against the right to establish and administer a school was internationally recognized. The autonomy claimed by private schools must yield to the larger social imperative underlying the right to life under Article 21 and allowing the supremacy of 'autonomy' would be detrimental to the constitutional goals of equality and inclusiveness, he said.
Learning occurs not merely from instruction imparted within the four walls of the classroom but from the classroom ethos and from interactivity between children from different backgrounds � different castes, different religions, different socioeconomic backgrounds, Vahanvati added.
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