Govt says it will cancel the lease of the defaulting schools

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) The Government today told the Delhi High Court that it would be forced to cancel the lease deed if the defaulting schools did not abide by 20 per cent freeship to the poor students.

A division bench of Justices T S Thakur and S N Agrawal said, ''Even the 20 per cent children who are not admitted under the freeship quota are the owners of the land.'' The school management should know it that the land had been leased out to them by the government and the ownership was still with the government, the court said.

During the hearing a public interest petition on freeship in public schools, the Court observed that the ownership of the land still vested with the public.

Delhi Development Authority (DDA) counsel Vinay Sabharwal said the government should cancel the lease of the land and take over the school for the betterment of the society.

The arguments remained inconclusive and would continue tomorrow.

In the meantime, Ashok Agrawal, the petitioner, submitted that the schools, which were given land at Re one per acre for playground did not allow the public to use it after the schools hours as per the stipulation of the DDA, the land owning agency.

Mr Agrawal said he would be filing a separate application seeking direction to the government for opening the playgrounds for the public.

Counsel Avinash Ahalwat appearing for the Directorate of Education had yesterday submitted that the court-appointed committee had recommended that all the 361 public schools, built on subsidised public land, should reserve 20 percent of their total seats for free education to the poor students.

The Delhi lieutenant governor has notified the state government's October 2006 order to private schools built on subsidized public land to reserve 20 percent of their seats for poor students and also waive their fees.

On September 13, 2005, the High Court had issued a stern warning to 106 private unaided public schools built on the government land allotted at a concessional rate, to provide 20 percent seats to the poor students.

UNI