HC gives last chance' for Telangana to give a word on quota for BPL students

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday gave a last opportunity to the state government to inform the court whether it will implement the 2010 government order, GO 44, which had reserved 25 per cent seats in private schools for students from below the poverty line (BPL) and downtrodden families.

The court noted that the GO was issued in adherence to the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 which prescribed such a mandatory quota for admissions to Class 1 and pre-school in private schools.

Most states including Telangana had not implemented the law, thereby depriving children from BPL families of access to quality education in the past over 10 years, it was noted.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy was dealing with a batch of petitions and PILs filed on this matter since 2016.

Government special counsel Sanjeev Kumar informed the court that GO 44 issued in July 2010 was suspended by the erstwhile High Court of undivided AP on a plea by Nalanda Education Society. After bifurcation of the High Court, the writ petition on the GO was transferred to the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Since then, no ‘vacate’ petition as expected was filed by Telangana state before the AP High Court.

Further, counsel said, the full bench of the Telangana High Court did take a decision and stated that the state was not bound by the order passed by the united AP High Court, but such an order still needs to be examined.

After hearing the contentions of counsel Kumar, the CJ observed: “This shows laxity on the part of the Telangana government. The state is doing nothing for the benefit of students from the weaker sections.”

The court said that if the state government failed to inform the High Court of its stand on implementation of central law, it would issue a direction for the benefit of such affected students, to be effective from the next academic year.