From rxpgnews.com
DPS is against egalitarian society: court
By IANS,
Apr 17, 2007 - 8:36:49 PM
New Delhi, April 17 - In a stinging observation against the perceived elitism of the Delhi Public School, the Delhi High Court Tuesday remarked that the school was hampering the growth of a homogenous, egalitarian society in the county.
'When the nation is working for an egalitarian society, you - are segregating the rich from the poor,' said a division bench of Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice S.N. Agrawal while hearing a public interest litigation pressing for the free education to poor students in the public schools, built on subsidised government land in the capital.
When Counsel Puneet Mittal appearing for the DPS Society said the school management has been running afternoon school for the poor, the court retorted, 'When the more fortunate ones go home, the lesser ones are forced to stay back.'
Expressing their anguish, the court asked the DPS Society to state the reasons for not admitting 20 per cent students from the weaker section of the society in its six schools in the capital despite availing land at a subsidised rate.
'Why you have not been providing free education to the students as stipulated in the land lease deed?' asked the court while refusing to dispose of a petition, challenging the show-cause notice of the government on the issue.
The Delhi Development Authority and Land & Development Office -, the land owning agencies, had allotted six plots to the DPS in the capital for the establishment of the schools.
The branches at Mathura Road and R K Puram are set up on the lands allotted by the L&DO and the rest on the lands by the DDA, submitted the government counsel.
The DDA in its allottment letters had mentioned that the DPS Society would be providing free education to at least 25 per cent students from the poor.
Mittal mentioned that the lease agreement with the L & DO did not mention about the free education clause.
The state government's Jan 2007 notification, directing all the schools on the public land to provide free education to 20 per cent of the students, has made the earlier petition infroctuous, Mittal said.
The court, however, said the petition would be disposed of only after hearing the arguments.
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