The Madras High Court has asked the Tamil Nadu government to reimburse children under the Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTI). The court also directed the Center to consider separating the RTE component from the overall education scheme and distribute the funds accordingly.
A division bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayanan on Monday directed a public interest litigation filed by V Ishwaran, requesting the officials to start the admission process for the educational year 2024-25."Text-Align: justify;"> During the hearing, Additional Advocate General J.K. Ravindran said that the responsibility of reimbursement should be shared between the central and the state governments. He said that unfortunately the state has not been paid its legitimate dues and as a result he is not able to reimburse the school management on time.
He said that due to non-release of funds by the Central Government, under Section 12 (1) (C) of the Act, the expenditure of Rs 188.99 crore for RTE reimbursement for the year 2022-23 was fully borne by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
In its order, the bench said that reading the statutory provisions carefully in the light of various examples leads to conclusion that the state government is obliged to initiate timely admission process under the RTE Act, so that children enrolled under this quota can enroll in the respective schools in the neighborhood at the beginning of the academic year.
After issuing the above instructions to the state government, the bench asked the Central Government to discharge its obligations under the Act. The bench said, “We instruct the central government to consider separating the RTE component of SSS and distribute funds accordingly.”