SHRC tightens noose on private elite schools, asks for report on admission of poor

Notices issued to Director Education, Principles of all leading Pvt schools for filing report by Dec 27

Srinagar, Dec 14: State Human Rights Commission Chairman Justice (Rtd) Bilal Nazaki today issued a notice to director education and the principals of leading private schools asking them to file a detailed compliance report about the reserved quota in the admission for the downtrodden children and also the criteria for the school fee.

The notice comes in response to the petition filed by the chairman international forum for justice and human rights (IFJHR) Muhammad Ahsan Untoo in case SHRC/395/Sgr/2018. In the hearing of the case before the SHRC chairman, counsels for the Tyndale Biscoe and Mallenson School, Delhi Public School and a representative on behalf of Iqbal Memorial Institute were present.

The notices have been issued to the principals of Biscoe, Mallenson, Presentation convent, Burn Hall and IMI and they are supposed to file the detailed report before the Commission by December 27.

The petitioner said in its petition filed had claimed that the elite schools of Kashmir are adopting a shoddy admission procedure and there was no check on their fee structure while as poor and downtrodden children were deprived of the right to education as these institutes deny them admissions.

He said there are clear-cut direction by the Supreme Court that the leading schools must keep 25 per cent reservation in admission for the downtrodden children so that they too get the quality education but in Kashmir things were totally adverse. The petitioner had also urged the SHRC to form the team for the inspection of the leading private schools to check the fee criteria and the heating arrangements for the students during winter months. The case is now listed before the SHRC on December 27. (KNS)