(April 13, 2012) India’s minority educational institutions on Friday hailed a Supreme
Court ruling that they do not have to reserve a quarter of the places in their schools
for poor students. India’s apex court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity
of the 2010 Right to Education Act (RTE), which mandates that private schools should
allocate 25 percent of their places to provide free education for poor students up
to the age of 14, but said this quota would not be applicable to institutions run
by minority groups. “Our educational institutions are generally geared towards poor
students and we admit more than the 25 per cent limit,” Father K.J. Antony, director
of the All India Association of Catholic Schools, said in New Delhi. He said the
ruling helps minority educational institutions because it will get rid of interference
from government agencies which they say was adversely effecting administration and
management. “We will have the freedom to choose students for admission in our schools
and not be forced to admit children of government officials,” he said. Archbishop
Leo Cornelio of Bhopal said students already admitted under the act will be allowed
to continue. From the time of the RTE came into force the Christian federation of
Madhya Pradesh state, Isai Mahasangh and the Catholic Council of Bishops had been
objecting to the misuse of RTE by the state government that appointed a representative
in the management committee of Minority Institutions. Isai Mahasang is now asking
the state government to withdraw its representative and stop interfering in minority
run institutions.