Provisions of the Right to Education Act applicable to minority institutions

RTE minority school rules
BASANT KUMAR MOHANTY

New Delhi, Sept. 13: The Centre has made two provisions of the Right to Education Act applicable to minority institutions despite a Supreme Court directive exempting them from the law.

Armed with advice from the department of legal affairs, the HRD ministry has written to all states asking them to apply the provisions of continuous promotion of students till Class VIII and no corporal punishment to minority institutions.

These institutions enjoy constitutional protection to promote education. Under Article 30 (i) of the Constitution, minorities have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

But the department of legal affairs is of the opinion that these two provisions of the RTE Act do not affect the “substance of the guaranteed rights to administer educational institutions”.

Accordingly, the August 27 letter sent to all state education secretaries reads: “… the regulatory provisions as provided in the RTE Act appear to be applicable to minority institutions in terms of Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution of India.”

This means minority institutions will have to now mandatorily implement the policies of no-detention up to Class VIII and no corporal punishment. [. . .]

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