HC seeks Delhi government response on play schools

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the city government on a plea filed against unauthorised and unrecognised play schools functioning here.

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice R.S. Endlaw asked the Delhi government to file its response within two weeks and posted the matter for April 29.

The court's order came on a Public-Interest Litigation filed by NGO Social Jurist.

The NGO said that despite the court's 2008 order that no unrecognised school should be allowed to run in Delhi, the directorate of education has done nothing to ensure this, resulting in "continuous existence and mushrooming of hundreds of unauthorised, unsafe and unrecognised play schools and pre-primary schools in Delhi".

Advocate Ashok Agarwal and Khagesh Jha, appearing for the NGO, told the court that some action-taken reports were submitted in the court but these were silent as to what action the directorate proposed to take against such schools that had not applied for recognition and were still functioning.

The plea said the directorate in 2013 invited applications for recognition of schools running classes up to the elementary level but said that as pre-primary schools are not covered under the Right to Education Act, these schools can continue to function.

Allowing pre-primary and nursery schools to continue to run without obtaining recognition is "illegal", it added.

In 2008, the high court asked the government to frame a scheme for regularising and regulating these unregistered institutions.