A.K. SIKRI, J.

1. In this petition filed by the petitioner, categorizing the same as Public Interest Litigation, the petitioner complains about the following purported failures on the part of Respondent No.1, Government of NCT of Delhi:

(i) Failure to prevent unaided recognized private schools of Delhi from admitting children below 4 years age in formal schools.

(ii) Failure to ensure that all unaided recognized private schools in Delhi have only one year of pre primary class in formal schools where children of 4+ age are admitted directly and are not promoted from nursery/pre-school.

(iii) Failure to ensure that children admitted in pre primary classes are not burdened with bags and books.

(iv) Failure to start pre primary classes in all schools.

(v) Failure to frame guidelines in regard to pre-school in terms of Clause 21 of the Recognized Schools (Admission Procedure for Pre Primary Class) Order – 2007. It is the submission of petitioner that the aforesaid failures and inaction on the part of Respondent No.1 violates the fundamental right of the children as guaranteed to them under Articles 14, 15, 21 and 21A of the Constitution of India. It is also termed as violative of Articles 38 and 39 of the Constitution as well as provisions of Delhi School Education Act, 1973 and The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (hereinafter referred to as the RTE Act) and UN Convention Rights of Child, 1989.

2. The genesis of the controversy raised in this writ petition can be traced to the exercise which started pursuant to earlier writ petition being W.P. No. 12490/2006 filed by this very petitioner, exercise done by the Government pursuant to orders passed therein culminating in the final orders dated 26th September, 2007 and certain events which have taken place thereafter. It is now time to recapitulate all these events in brief to appreciate the cause of aforesaid grievances.

3. Writ Petition No.12490/2006 was filed by the petitioner highlighting the fact that different unrecognized private schools in Delhi were applying different age criteria for admission of children in nursery class and sought directions from this Court to the Government to ensure that all the schools follow uniform age criteria in accordance with Section 16 of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 which provides that a child who has not attained the age of 5 years shall not be admitted in class 1 in a recognized school. Taking cognizance of the vital issue raised by the petitioner in the said writ petition, this Court constituted Ashok Ganguly Committee to look into the matter and submit its report, inter alia, ascertaining as to what should be the suitable age for a child for the purpose of admission in pre-primary. The Ashok Ganguly Committee undertook the job with alacrity and after in-depth analysis of all the facets of the issue raised on the basis of various inputs provided by experts from different fields, submitted its report dated 31st march, 2007 with certain recommendations to the Respondent No.1. Copy of the Ashok Ganguly Report is annexed with this petition. This report is in five chapters with following headings:

(i) Chapter I – Introduction.

(ii) Chapter II – Present Position and some Policy Perspective.

(iii) Chapter III – Feedback from stakeholders.

(iv) Chapter IV – The Rationale.

(v) Chapter V – Recommendations.

Along with the Report, there is one annexure also which stipulates ?Some Guidelines for Pre Primary and Pre School Education. Some of the portions of the said report which were highlighted by the counsel for the parties are reproduced at this stage itself:

“REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PRE-PRIMARY AND PRE SCHOOL EDUCATION IN DELHI Chapter – I

Introduction

1.1 Early Childhood Care and Education has globally been recognized as critical for human resource development. The first 8 years of a child‘s life are the most crucial years because during this period of early childhood the pace of development is e