Right to receive proper education a fundamental right under Article 21A: Allahabad High Court

Right to receive proper education a fundamental right under Article 21A: Allahabad High Court.

The Court showed its displeasure with the approach adopted by the Institution.

The Allahabad High Court in a special appeal petition observed that the right to receive proper education is a fundamental right under Article 21A of the Constitution of India.

The present appeal was filed challenging the decision of the single judge bench which held that a writ petition against the La Martiniere College, Lucknow is not maintainable since the Institution is an unaided private institution. Therefore, the petition was dismissed.

The issue arose when one Tanishk Srivastava, a class VII student, passed the entrance exam as a resident scholar in La Martiniere College, Lucknow. However, due to his mother's illness and father's unavailability, he was unable to complete the admission process.

His father moved an application to the principal of the school requesting to admit Tanishk as a Day Scholar instead of a Resident Scholar as he is ready to complete all required formalities including the fees, but there was no response from the school about the fate of his application.

The father filed a writ petition before the single judge bench, which was thereby dismissed.

The Court upheld the order of the single judge bench and placed reliance on the case of Committee of Management, La Martiniere College, Lucknow, and Anr Vs. Vatsal Gupta and Others which held that the Institution being an unaided minority private institution, the writ petition is not maintainable.

However, before parting the Court found it appropriate to note that:

"if the admission of the student-appellant Tanishk Srivastava for ClassVIII for that he was admittedly qualified was not possible as Day Scholar student as he had qualified such entrance examination for Resident Scholar, at least specific information to this effect must be provided to the parents of such student at the earliest so that appropriate steps could be taken by the parents of such student."

The Court also noted that this is not case a wherein the student has not qualified for the entrance at all, whereas the student has passed the entrance exam but due to compelling and unavoidable circumstances he could not get admitted as a resident scholar. Hence, the court noted that on the principals of equity, it was the bare minimum on part of the Principal to inform the parents that the institution would be unable to admit their ward as a Day Scholar.

It noted that:

"This is a trite law that where there is no statutory prescription to redress the grievance of any aggrieved, the equitable principles would be applied inasmuch as no one should be left remediless."

Emphasizing Article 21A, the Court observed that the right to receive proper education is a fundamental right and hence made a remark that: "if that request of the student/parents of the student was not liable to be accepted, he/they should have been immediately informed about such fact so that such student could get his admission in any other institution for receiving proper education inasmuch as to receive proper education is a Fundamental Right enshrined under Article 21-A of the Constitution of India."

The Court urged institutions/educational authorities to ensure that admission-related grievances must be redressed with promptness and must not remain unattended.