The Supreme Court will on Thursday deliver its verdict on the validity of various provisions of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act including a mandatory rule for private schools to reserve of 25 per cent seats for children of economically weaker sections of society.
A bench comprising Chief Justice SH Kapadia and justices KS Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar, which had reserved its verdict on August 3 last year, would also decide the validity of provisions of the law which made right to education a fundamental right of children in the age group of 6-14 years.
The order would be passed on a bunch of petitions by private unaided institutions which contended that the Act violates the rights of private educational institutions under Article 19(1)(g) which provided autonomy to private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference.
During the marathon arguments in the case which went for many months, the Centre had defended the law saying it was aimed at uplifting the socially and economically weaker section of society.
The Centre had emphasised the need to de-link merit and talent from social and economic differences among different sections of society and said that the act calls for “moving towards composite classrooms with children from diverse backgrounds, rather than homogeneous and exclusivist schools”.
The main petitioner Society for Un-aided Private Schools, Rajasthan, and a host of associations representing various private schools questioned the validity of the Act on the ground that it impinged on their rights to run the educational institutions.
–PTI