Receiving Proper Education Is A Fundamental Right Under Article 21-A Of Constitution: Allahabad High Court
The Allahabad High Court has held that receiving proper education is a fundamental right enshrined under Article 21-A of the Indian Constitution. The Division Bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi and Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan also opined that the educational authorities should ensure that grievance relating to the admission to an institution is redressed promptly and that it does not remain unattended.
In this case, a candidate named Tanishk Srivastava had appeared in the entrance test for admission as Resident Scholar in the educational institution -La Martiniere College, Lucknow for taking admission in Class VIII. When the results were declared the candidate- Tanishk Srivastava was declared successful to get admission to Class-VIII as Resident Scholar.
However, due to the serious illness of his mother and his father being out of town, he could not get admission to Class VIII as Resident Scholar. Therefore, the father of the candidate mailed an application to the Principal of the Institution that instead of treating his son as a Resident Scholar, he may be given admission as Day Scholar.
As this application was not disposed of the father of the candidate made the same request to the District Magistrate, Lucknow, who is a Member of the Governing Council of such institution as well as to the Principal Secretary, Senior Secondary School Board, Lucknow for the redressal of the same grievance. However, it didn't yield any response.
Advocate Satendra Kumar Singh appearing for the appellant submitted that the father of the candidate was not informed about the fate of the admission of his son. Therefore he filed a writ petition before High Court praying for issuance of directions to allow admission of the candidate- Tanishk Srivastava as day scholar in Class VIII in place of resident scholar.
The writ petition was dismissed on the ground that the said writ petition was not maintainable. The High Court had placed reliance on the order of the Supreme Court in the case of Committee of Management, La Martiniere College, Lucknow and Anr Vs. Vatsal Gupta and Others, while dismissing the petition.
The Single Judge considered the aforesaid judgment of the Apex Court and some more judgments of the Apex Court and held that since a writ petition against La Martiniere College, Lucknow was not maintainable, therefore, the reliefs prayed in the writ petition may not be granted.
The Court asked the counsel for the appellant as to whether he can show any case law to the effect that the grievance of the appellant may be redressed by invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court. However, the Court observed that no proper reply or case law was cited to convince the Court that the prayers of the writ petition could be allowed.
Accordingly, the special appeal was also dismissed.
Before parting the Court opined that if the admission of the candidate was not possible as a day scholar student then such information should be provided to the parents of such student at the earliest so that appropriate steps could be taken by the parents.
"This is not a case where the student has not qualified the entrance examination for getting admission in particular class i.e. Class-VIII but this is a case where such student has qualified such entrance examination as Resident Scholar but due to compelling and unavoidable circumstances he could not be able to get admission as Resident Scholar. Therefore, in such compelling circumstances, at least on the basis of principles of equity, it was bare minimum required on the part of the Principal of the institution to apprise the parents of the student that the institution would be unable to provide admission to their ward in Class-VIII as a Day Scholar student", the court held.
The Court further held whatever is possible under the law or under the principles of equities, the prompt decision should be taken and intimated to all aggrieved so that the consequential steps could be taken in time.
"…if that request of the student/parents of the student was not liable to be accepted, he/they should have been immediately informed about such fact so that such student could get his admission in any other institution for receiving proper education inasmuch as to receive proper education is a Fundamental Right enshrined under Article 21-A of the Constitution of India", the Court held.
Click here to read/download the order
