HC asks govt not to force schools on their own land to give freeship

New Delhi, Oct 11 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today asked the Delhi Government not to force the private public schools established on their own land to provide freeship to the poor students in the Capital.

A division bench of Justices M K Sharma and Hima Kohli said, however, the public schools allotted land at a concessional rate would have to provide 20-30 percent freeship to the poor students according to the lease agreement.

The 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 are bound to provide freeship to the poor students according to the agreement signed at the time of allottment of land.

On September 13, 2005, 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 percent seats to the poor students.

The DDA and L and 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 percent 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.

In an order in January 2004, the High Court had directed the Delhi Government to strictly implement the rule by setting aside atleast 25 percent of the total strength of the public schools for the poor students.

Mr Agrawal told the court that despite its specific direction in the January 20 judgement on its public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue, many private schools had been turning away the poor students.

UNI PAT YA DB1834