Bombay High Court converts petition into PIL about RTE

The Bombay high court on Monday observed that the Right to Education (RTE) was not being properly implemented in the state and thus, converted a petition into PIL, asking the state how it was implementing the Act. The court also asked the union government if it had any policy to implement RTE. The court was hearing a petition filed by a woman after she was unable to pay Rs 19,500 to a school that asked for the same as school fees, the amount inclusive of the “Building Development Fund”

The division bench headed by Justice Vidyasagar Kanade — observing that while an individual had filed the petition, it was not the only case in the state and though RTE Act was in place, it was not being properly implemented —converted the petition into public interest litigation.

The bench asked the Maharashtra government what steps it had taken to implement the Act and also asked the union to inform the court about what kind of policy it had to implement RTE.

The court was hearing a petition filed by one Rita Kanojia through Advocate Prakash Wagh, seeking the court’s direction to school to grant her some relief in school fees of her child. Ms Kanojia has three children, of which two are studying in the same school. It may be recalled that this is the same matter in which Justice Kanade, on Friday, offered to pay a sum of Rs 10,500 to the petitioner from his own pocket so that she could pay her child’s fees. The petitioner stated before the court that she had lost her husband in July 2014 and was now working as a maidservant in some houses to make ends meet.

The court was informed that Ms Kanojia had approached the school to get her youngest son Kartik admitted to junior kindergarten and the school duty enrolled his name in the list of prospective students. Subsequently, the school asked her to deposit an amount of Rs 30,000 as fees for admission and handed over a slip which had the breakup of the fees including Rs 19,500 of total fees towards the “Building Development Fund”.

Ms Kanojia approached the school management and told them about the financial crisis she was going through. She also told them that she belonged to the Scheduled Caste category and as per rules, was entitled for relaxation of fees for her children but all her efforts were in vain.