NEW DELHI: Education for the poorest of the poor in India got a shot in the arm with India's top court affirming that it is constitutionally valid for the government to enact laws that reserve 25% of seats in private schools for students from economically and socially weaker sections of society. A three judge bench decreed that the government's Right to Education Act, a legislation that guarantees free and compulsory education to all students up to the age of 14, was also applicable to privately run schools not aided by the government. A host of private school associations like the Society for Unaided Private Schools, Independent Schools Federation of India and others had filed petitions challenging the Act for violating their autonomy. They had also said that reservation of 25% seats for the children from the weaker sections of society would eat into their resources. The government had, in turn, promised to reimburse the money spent on these students. Reacting to the judgment, Union Education Minister Kapil Sibal expressed happiness that the controversy has now been cleared. “What the court has given us today is clarity on the issue so that all controversies are set to rest. Our vision of education moves forward when the controversies are set to rest. So we are very happy that all controversies are set to rest and there is clarity,” Sibal said. “One of the biggest issues involved was 25 percent reservation applies to private schools or not which is also upheld by SC and it also does not apply to minority institutions. That controversy is also set to rest,” he added. However, the judgment made an exception for schools run by religious minorities. The judgment states that the RTE act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools which continue to have the right to give students from their respective communities' preference.
