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The UT education department has issued a show-cause notice to St Kabir Public School in Sector 26 for publishing advertisements for the 2022-2023 academic session admissions while claiming to be a Sikh minority school.
In the notice issued by the UT district education officer (DEO), it has been pointed out that the department had filed a letter patent appeal (LPA) against a Punjab and Haryana high court order in 2017 in the Department of School Education, Chandigarh administration, vs National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions and others case.
The court had granted stay against the orders issued by the commission wherein St Kabir Public School was given minority status.
“Since the matter is sub-judice, the advertisement that the school is a Sikh minority school is misleading,” the DEO added in the letter. Sent on April 26, the letter had sought the school’s response by April 29.
According to the school’s administrator Gurpreet Bakshi, they have sent a letter to the department in response.
As per the school’s explanation, the advertisement was issued for Class 11 admissions for which there is no minority quota. The school added that for the purpose of nursery admissions, it is specifically mentioned that no minority quota admissions shall be made in compliance with the high court order.
The school further added that the show-cause notice was issued on wrong and incomplete facts, as the judgment of the HC’s single bench on March 20, 2020, had not been stayed. The school also added that the department was not competent to issue the show-cause notice, as even the writ petition had not been filed by them.
UT DEO Prabhjot Kaur said they had received the school’s response and were going over it with the law officer before taking further action against the school.
The UT education department has been cracking down on private unaided minority schools for not reserving seats for EWS students. The department had sought data from all the 20 minority schools in the city on whether 15% reservation for EWS students was being provided. Most schools have not provided this data and the department plans to send show-cause notices to them.
The department had also sent a show-cause notice to Vivek High School in Sector 38 after HC had quashed the order declaring the school as a minority educational institution and the school was found not adhering to instructions regarding EWS reservations.
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