ITI Saxena Minor v. MBA International School

1. By way of CM APPL. 49273/2024, the applicant/respondent no. 1 i.e M.B.S. International School seeks vacation of order dated 09.08.2024 passed by this Court vide which provisional admission was granted to the petitioner herein in the respondent School. By way of another application i.e. CM APPL. 53872/2024, the applicant/respondent no. 1 i.e M.B.S. International School seeks stay of operation of order dated 09.08.2024.

2. By way of these applications, the respondent no. 1/applicant states that on 09.08.2024, since there was no appearance on behalf of the respondent no. 1 school, this Court had issued direction in favour of the petitioner, directing the School to provisionally grant admission to the petitioner in Class Nursery/Pre-primary in accordance with the result of shortlisting exercise conducted by the Directorate of Education. It is stated that on the said date, the Court proceedings were being conducted through video-conferencing and the representatives of the School were waiting outside the courtroom under the belief that the Court would hold the proceedings physically. However, the representatives of the School and the learned counsel had later been informed that provisional admission had been granted to the petitioner vide order dated 09.08.2024.

3. It is now argued that in addition to previous representations, the School had submitted a detailed representation dated 13.07.2024 to the respondent no. 2/Directorate of Education, requesting it to consider the representations of the applicant/respondent no. 1 and to make appropriate rectifications and thereby reduce the declared/ sanctioned strength at entry level classes of the School from 160 to 120 seats i.e. 90 General Seats plus 30 seats of EWS/DG and CWSN category. It is stated that pursuant to persistent and consistent representations of the School, the Directorate of Education has reduced the sanctioned strength of the School and has been pleased to shift EWS/DG candidates figuring at serial no. 33 to 35 of the online list to other school(s). The petitioner herein, who figures at serial NO. 33 of the said list, has now been allotted and shifted to „Modern Convent School, Sector- IV, Dwarka, New Delhi-110078‟. It is thus submitted that the impugned order warrants reconsideration/ modification/vacation by this Court. It is stated that the present order, if not reviewed/modified/vacated, will not only severely affect/displace the applicant/respondent School qua the case of the petitioner but shall have grave ramifications for the School qua the other EWS/DG category candidates. Therefore, it is prayed that either the order dated 09.08.2024 be vacated or in interim, be stayed till the disposal of application seeking its vacation.

4. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Directorate of Education states that the petitioner herein has been allotted a different school now, after considering a fresh representation made by the applicant/respondent School.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner, on the other hand, submits that the respondents have not complied with the order passed by this Court, vide which they were directed to grant provisional admission to the petitioner, and the Directorate of Education has rather allotted a different school to the petitioner herein.

6. This Court has heard arguments addressed by the learned counsels appearing on behalf of the parties and has perused the material placed on record.

7. This Court‟s attention has been drawn to the order dated 27.06.2024 passed by Deputy Director of Education, Zone-21, District SWB-1, vide which the proposal/representation dated 25.01.2024 of the respondent School, was rejected by the Directorate of Education. The order reads as under: “To, The Principal/Manager M.B.S. International Sector-11, Dwarka, New Delhi-110075 Sub: Request for reduction of declared seats at entry level Madam/Sir, With reference to your proposal dated 25.01.2024 on the subject cited above, this is to inform you that your request has not been considered by the Competent authority on the basis of sufficient admission in last 05 years.”

8. It is clear from the letter that as on 27.06.2024, the Directorate of Education had declined to accede to the request of respondent School for reduction of seats under EWS/DG category.

9. Pursuant to hearing arguments in the present writ petition on 04.07.2024, this Court had granted interim relief in the following terms:

10. On 09.08.2024, this Court had granted provisional admission to the petitioner herein, by way of following order:

8. List on 03.12.2024.”

11. As per rules/notification of Directorate of Education, the private unaided schools are required to apply for reduction of seats, if they so desire, for every academic year. The letter dated 27.06.2024 shows that the representation made by the School for reduction of seats for the academic session 2024-25, was rejected by Directorate of Education. In other words, it is clear that for the current academic session, for which the respondent School was allocated to the petitioner, the representation of the respondent School, where they had pleaded that since their general category admissions are on the lower side, the number of the EWS candidates also needs to be brought down, had been rejected in the month of June, 2024 and the Directorate of Education itself had stated that on the basis of their seat matrix for the last five years, the seats cannot be reduced. Moreover, the allocation of the School had already been made in the month of May, vide a draw of lots held on 31.05.2024. Consequently, the allocation made pursuant to draw of lots, including the present petitioner, was within the parameters of the notifications of Directorate of Education.

12. However, it appears that pursuant to another representation dated 13.07.2024 preferred by the respondent School, after this Court had directed on 04.07.2024 that a seat be reserved for the petitioner in the School, and further, after this Court had already granted provisional admission to the petitioner herein, the Directorate of Education, for reasons best known to them, had decided to allocate some other school to the present petitioner.