Delhi HC dismisses AAP government appeal

New Delhi: In a major setback to the AAP government, the Delhi high court on Monday dismissed the city government’s appeal against a single judge’s interim order staying its new nursery admission norms based on the neighbourhood criterion.

A bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal directed the single judge to decide the petitions expeditiously. “We have dismissed the appeal (of Delhi government).We, however, have directed the single judge to decide the petitions (challenging the Delhi government’s decision) as expeditiously as possible,” the bench said.

While the court refused to interfere with the single bench’s order, it expressed its concern that the admission process has already commenced. The bench said that if the process was stalled, it would lead to an “irreversible” situation.

“Since the issue relates to the admission of children in entry level classes, if the notification (neighbourhood as the sole criterion for deciding the admission) is allowed to be acted upon, it would lead to irreversible situation and in case the notification is ultimately quashed, the consequences would be very complex and serious,” the bench said.

It added that the implementation of the notification, which seeks to regulate the admissions in only 298 schools, can await the final result of the writ petitions.

The division bench was hearing an appeal filed by the AAP government against a single judge’s February 14 interim order. The single judge had stayed the Delhi government’s new 2017-2018 nursery admission norm, observing that “a student’s educational fate can’t be relegated to only his/her position on a map.”

Upholding the decision, the bench had asked the single judge to dispose of the main writ petitions as expeditiously as possible.

“We also make it clear that the observations/findings in our order as well as the order under appeal being prima facie in nature shall not come in the way of deciding the main writ petitions,” it added.

The single judge had ordered an interim stay of the January 7 notification until the final disposal of the pleas challenging the Delhi government’s order.

In its two directives on December 19, 2016 and January 7, 2017, the Delhi government had made it compulsory for the 298 private schools built on the Delhi Development Authority land to admit children for nursery who live in that neighbourhood or stay within a certain distance from the school.

Maintaining that the order passed by the single judge was “totally wrong,” “erroneous,” and “against the law,” the AAP government had urged the division bench to stay the operation of the order.