The Supreme Court on Thursday by a majority of 2:1 upheld the constitutional validity of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which provides for free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 and 14 years and mandates government/aided/and non-minority unaided schools to reserve 25 per cent of the seats for these children. A Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar...

Today's Supreme Court judgment saying all private schools other than unaided minority schools must reserve one in four seats for poor children has provoked dismay in private schools. Principals of leading private schools in Delhi said the 25 per cent reservation would impose a severe financial burden on them. "The government should take care of education for the poor. Why cannot the government open new schools? Why are they pushing the 25...

All private schools and government-aided minority institutions in the country will have to provide 25% reservation in entry-level admissions for children from the weaker sections of society, the Supreme Court said on Thursday. The court said its order would take effect immediately but with most schools having completed admissions for the current academic year, poor students will be able to benefit from the judgment from 2013. Children admitted under this...

-The Hindu   The Supreme Court on Thursday said “every citizen has a right to establish and administer educational institution[s] under Article 19(1) (g) so long as the activity remains charitable. Such an activity undertaken by the private institutions supplements the primary obligation of the state. Thus, the state can regulate by law the activities of the private institutions by imposing reasonable restrictions under Article 19(6).” A Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia...

Statistics can abet illusions, unless properly understood and used. The debates on poverty line and budget deficits reflect a lack of understanding of the meaning and purpose of these measures. India has been recently witness to furious debates on measures of poverty and budget deficits. Any measure can be used only for the purpose it is designed for. The debates in the present cases were furious, because preconceptions and emotions were...