Court grants six weeks for freeship in Public Schools

New Delhi, July 21 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today granted six weeks to the public schools to implement the freeship in their schools which had availed land at a concessional rates.

A division bench comprising Justice M K Sharma and Justice Hima Kohli said last opportunity would be given to the schools to chalk out a plan to provide free education to at least 20-30 per cent poor students in their schools.

The High Court had earlier directed the state government to constitute a committee, comprising eminent educationists, sociologists and psychologists to look into the matter.

In an affidavit, the state government had stated that private public schools were bound to provide freeship to the poor students according to the agreement signed at the time of allottment of land.

On September 13, the High Court had issued a stern warning to 106 private unaided public schools established on the government land allotted at a concessional rate, to provide 20 per cent seats to the poor students.

The Court had said it would order for the closure of the schools, who did not adhere to the High Court order pronounced in January 2004.

The state government had convened a meeting, which was attended by DDA Vice Chairman, MCD Commissioner, Land&Development Officer, Salman Khurshid, who represented 250 provode and public schools and petitioner Advocate Ashok Agrawal.

The DDA and L&D Department had allotted land at a cocesssional rate to 361 schools and according to the lease agreement, the institutions should reserve at least 20-25 per cent seats for the poor students.

Had the schools adhered to the norms set by the land allotting agencies, at least 1.5 lakh poor students would have been studying in these institutions under freeship quota, said Counsel Agrawal, appearing for Social Jurist.

UNI PAT KD KP1859