The Right to Education Act aims to ensure educational access for underprivileged children, and rigid adherence to distance criteria that denies admission contradicts this purpose.

1. This Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking to declare the action of respondents in denying admission for 1st Class in P.M. Shri Kendriya Vidyalaya No.2, Vijayawada, Region Hyderabad (RTE Lottery No.18) as illegal and arbitrary and consequently direct the respondents to provide admission to petitioner's son in the aforementioned School.

2. It is the case of the petitioner that he belongs to Scheduled Caste community. He is a daily wage employee working in and around Vijayawada as painter. In response to Online Notification dated 07.03.2025, he applied for admission of his son Nishanth Jaladi in 1st Class in Kendriya Vidyalaya schools of viz. P.M. Shri K.V. Nos.1 and 2 in Vijayawada region. As per the Notification/instructions, up to three choices of KendriyaVidyalayas without any preference between them, can be given i.e. one can apply up to three KendriyaVidyalayas using the same online application form. Distance between residence of the petitioner and P.M.ShriKendriya Vidyalaya No.1 is less than 5 KMs, and the other P.M. Shri Kendriya Vidyalaya is more than 5 KMs from the residence of petitioner.

It is the case of the petitioner that his son is eligible for admission under RTE norms, and in pursuance of application No.252540109382813365, through lottery, his son was allotted P.M. Shri Kendriya Vidyalaya No.2, Vijayawada with lottery No.18 in RTE Lottery result. Accordingly, he approached the School on 29.3.2025 and 01.04.2025 for admission, but the Principal of 4th respondent school informed him that admission cannot be given as distance of his residence which is disclosed in the application form, to the School is more than 5 KMs.

It is the grievance of petitioner that admission cannot be denied only on the ground of distance of his house is more than 5 KMs away from School, and that he does not have any permanent residence and he is staying in a rented house and he is ready to shift his residence to the nearest location to school immediately for better education of his son and will give undertaking to that effect. Hence, the Writ Petition.

3. Counter affidavit, deposed by 3rd respondent, is filed on behalf of respondents 1 to 4, inter alia, stating as follows:

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) issued Admission schedule for the session 2025-26. Certain seats are reserved for fresh admissions as per the Admission Guidelines for KVS within the approved class strength of 40 students per Section i.e. 25% (10 seats) under the Right to Education Act, 2009; 15% (06 seats) for Scheduled Caste; 7.5% (03 seats) for Scheduled Tribe; 27% (11 seats) for OBC and 3% for differently abled applicants, horizontally. As per Sl.No.4 (1) (I) of the Admission Guidelines, out of 40 seats per Section in Class-I, 10 seats are to be filled as per Right to Education provisions and the same will be filled by draw of lots from all applications of SC/ST/ EWS/BPL/OBC/differently abled, taken together who are the resident of "neighbourhood." For determining the limits of "neighbourhood", KendriyaVidyalayas categorized the distance from the Vidyalayala to the residence, as per the KVS Admission Guidelines, which is 5 KMs radius, in case of major cities and urban area (all district headquarters and metros) and 8 KMs radius, in case of other places and areas. A child applying in one of the above categories will be automatically considered for admission in RTE category in Vijayawada, to which he applied, as per the KVS Admission Guidelines.

Petitioner submitted online application on 19.03.2025 for admission to Class-I to his son during 2025-26 under RTE at PM Shri Kendriya V