Justice Anita Sumanth, in her judgement, said the state is regularly reimbursing the expenses incurred by these classes in the schools. The state has suo motu and appropriately treated children who are below six years as being entitled to the benefit of the Act. This finds support from the proviso to section 12 (1) of the RTE Act.
“The extent of school’s responsibility for free and compulsory education coming under Chapter IV, dealing with responsibilities of schools and teachers which makes reference to pre-school education, implied that the benefit of the Act is to extend to education from kindergarten to eighth standard. It is thus this stipulation that would apply irrespective of the age of child,” the judge said.
The court also noted that the RTE Act is a Central enactment and different states have prescribed different ages for commencement of school education.
Since the categorical object of the Act is to make available education for children from pre-school to eighth standard, it is this parameter that is paramount in understanding the application of the Act, the court observed. Though the term ‘child’ had been defined to mean a male or female child of the age of six to 14 under section 2c of the RTE Act, the state action of extending the benefit to younger children, too, finds support under section 12(1) which makes reference to pre-school education.
The observations were made while passing a verdict allowing two writ petitions filed against denial of admission to LKG under the RTE Act by two private schools in Coimbatore. The court directed the authorities to take immediate action to admit the children with all benefits under the RTE Act.
The petitioners, who are the parents of two children, said they filed applications with the school but the applications were rejected on the grounds that their residences were beyond 1 km from the school. The parents said there were sufficient vacancies in the schools during the present academic year under the RTE quota and sought a direction from the respondents to admit the children.
The court said there was no irregularity in the procedure adopted by the parents while making multiple applications as the Act allowed them to opt for up to five applications under the RTE Act based on one registration. The judge said in the present case, even if the parents had made multiple applications, the number of applications was less than the allowed five applications.