Uniform admission guidelines for educational institutions must be strictly adhered to; age eligibility cannot be relaxed arbitrarily as it leads to discrimination against other students.

JUDGMENT

(01/02/2019

Per: R.S. Jha, J.

This appeal has been filed by the appellant under Section 2(1) of the Madhya Pradesh Unchcha Nyalaya (Khand Nyapeeth Ko Appeal) Adhiniyam, 2005 being aggrieved by the order dated 13.11.2018 passed by the learned single Judge of this court in W.P. No. 9785/2018 whereby the petition filed by the respondents no. 1 and 2 seeking admission in Class III has been allowed.

2. The facts leading to filing of this appeal are that the respondent No.1 & 2 after passing Class-II from respondent No.4 Jyoti Senior Secondary School, Rewa, obtained a transfer certificate as they were desirous of obtaining admission and pursing further study in the appellant school namely; Kendriya Vidyalaya No.1, Rewa. Admittedly and undisputedly as per Clause (4) of the guidelines for admission in Kendriya Vidyalaya issued by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, New Delhi, which deals with the eligible age for admission, the minimum age for obtaining admission in Class-III has been prescribed as seven years as on 31^st March of the year in which the admission is sought and as the date of birth of both two respondents who are twins is 03.04.2011, they were admittedly and undisputedly short by three days, out of which one day is relaxable, for obtaining admission in Class-III.

3. As the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 in this appeal did not ful the eligibility age criteria prescribed in the guidelines, the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 through their natural guardian and mother, voluntarily and on their own, applied for and obtained admission in the Class-II in the appellant school on 06.04.2018. The fact that the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 applied for and obtained admission in Class-II is evident from the letter of request dated 06.04.2018 (Annexure A/3) and is also clearly established from a perusal of the record of the appellant school which has been placed before us during hearing. It is also an undisputed fact that subsequent to obtaining admission in Class-II, the natural guardian of respondent Nos. 1 & 2 filed an application before the authorities of the appellant for granting admission to the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 in Class-III requesting the Principal of the appellant school to exercise his extraordinary power to relax the age criteria.

4. As the Principal did not possess any such powers, the criteria was not relaxed. The respondents thereafter filed a writ petition before this Court which was registered as W.P.No.9785/2018, in which, an interim order was passed by this Court on 07.05.2018 permitting the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 to attend the classes (without specifying the class) with a rider that merely attending the classes would not create any equity in favour of the petitioners and would be subject to the final outcome of the petition. This order was subsequently modified on 20.08.2018 by permitting the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 to attend Class-III.

5. The petition filed by the respondent Nos. 1 & 2 has been allowed by the impugned order dated 13.11.2018 by the learned Single Judge on the ground that the respondents were only two days short of the age criteria and that they had been attending the class-III pursuant to the interim order passed by this Court, wherein, they had demonstrated their merit and had also passed the half yearly examination with good marks and, therefore, it would be unjust, unreasonable and harsh and would amount to waste of one full academic year, if they would be asked to repeat Class-II.

6. The learned counsel appearing for the appellant has assailed the order passed by the learned Single Judge on the groun