Supreme Court Doubts Exemption Of Minority Schools From RTE Act

The Supreme Court of India expressed doubt over the 2014 Pramati Educational & Cultural Trust judgment, which holds that minority schools, whether aided or unaided, are exempted from the preview of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, 2009 (RTE Act).

The bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine George Masih expressed doubt and said, “We respectfully express our doubt as to whether Pramati, insofar as it exempts application of the RTE Act to minority schools, whether aided or unaided, falling under clause 1, has been correctly decided”.

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Notably, the Minority schools were considered to be out of the purview of the RTE Act as it is considered to violate the rights of minorities under Article 30. The Court asked whether Pramati considered reading down the mandate of the Act, that a school should admit students from weaker sections to the extent of 25%.

Considering the issue of the applicability of RTE to minority schools the bench referred four questions to the Chief Justice of India, BR Gavai, for appropriate directions.

1. Whether said (Pramati) judgment requires reconsideration.
2. Whether RTE Act infringes the rights of minorities and assuming that Section 12(1)(c) suffers from vires of encroaching upon minority rights protected by Article 30, Section 12(1)(c) should have been read down to include ‘children of the particular minority community’ who also belong to weaker section and disadvantaged groups to save Section 12(1)(c) to be declared as ultra vires.
3. On the effect of non-consideration of Article 29(2) in Pramati.
4. The effect of non-consideration of Section 23(2) in the said judgment and finally, in the absence of any discussion in the judgment regarding unconstitutionality of the other provisions of the RTE Act except Section 12(1)(c), the entirety of the enactment should have been declared ultra vires.”

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