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High court warns schools of cancellation of land lease deed
Apr 19, 2007 - 8:16:30 PM
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Delhi's lieutenant governor had notified the state government's Oct 2006 order to private schools built on subsidised public land to reserve 20 percent of their seats for poor students and also waive their fees.
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By IANS,
[RxPG] New Delhi, April 19 - The Delhi High Court Thursday warned the schools built on subsidised public land in the city that their land lease deed could be cancelled for not abiding by the terms of reserving 20 per cent of seats for free education to the poor.
A division bench of Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice S.N. Agrawal issued the warning to the defaulting schools a day after the union government disclosed that public schools had been given three-fourths of the land at one-tenth of market price and the remaining one-fourth of it at the rate of Rs one per acre.
Pointing out that the ownership of the land is still vested with the government, the bench said, 'Even the 20 per cent children who are not admitted under the freeship quota are the owners of the land.'
The school authorities should know that the government had leased out the land to them and the ownership was still with it, the court said.
During the argument on the issue of free education to at least 20 per cent of the poor students in schools built on subsidized land, the counsel for Delhi Development Authority - Vinay Sabharwal said the government should cancel the lease of the land and take over the school for the betterment of the society.
The arguments remained inconclusive and would continue Friday.
Advocate Ashok Agarwal, who had filed the public interest litigation to seek direction from the high court forcing beneficiary schools to reserve 20 per cent of their seats free for the poor, said the schools, which were given land at Re one per acre for playground did not allow the public to use it after the schools hours violating the stipulation by the DDA.
Agrawal said he would be filing a separate application seeking direction to the government for opening the playgrounds to the public.
On Jan 31, some public schools had filed a petition challenging the Delhi government's notification for free education to 20 percent of students in schools built on subsidized land, contending that the notification could not be implemented in its present form.
Delhi's lieutenant governor had notified the state government's Oct 2006 order to private schools built on subsidised public land to reserve 20 percent of their seats for poor students and also waive their fees.
On Sep 13, 2005, the high court had issued a stern warning to 106 private unaided public schools built on the government land allotted at a concessional rate, to reserve 20 percent seats for the free education to the poor students.
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