The Supreme Court of India on 12 April 2012 upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009,
which mandates 25 per cent free seats to the poor in government and
private unaided schools uniformly across the country. The apex court
clarified that its judgment will come into force from 12 April 2012.
However, the act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private
schools except unaided private minority schools.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar gave the ruling.
The bench had reserved its verdict on 3August 2012 on a batch
of petitions by private unaided institutions which had contended that
the section 12 (1)(c) of RTE Act violates the rights of private
educational institutions under Article 19(1) (g) which provided autonomy to private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference.
Right to Education Act (RTE) was passed by the Indian parliament on 4
August 2009.The act came into force on 1 April 2010. It has the
provision of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14
in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. India became one
of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child.
Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE act says that every recognized school
imparting elementary education is obliged to admit underprivileged
children even if it is not aiaded by the government to meet its
expenses.
