Delhi High Court says income threshold for school admission under EWS quota will be ₹2.5 lakh for now

A division bench of the Delhi High Court on Tuesday modified an earlier order by a single-judge that increased the threshold income for school admissions under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakhs per annum [Directorate of Education v Master Singham & Anr]..A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said that the threshold income shall be ₹2.5 lakhs.The division bench also stayed the directions issued by the single judge whereby he had called for the eradication of the mechanism of accepting self-declarations of income.“Till further orders, there shall be a stay on the directions contained in paragraph 119 of the impugned judgement. The threshold income under the EWS category shall be increased from ₹1 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh till further orders,” the division bench ordered..Earlier, a child whose parents have a total income of less than ₹1 lakh per year, and have been staying in Delhi for the last three years, was eligible for EWS reservation.This income threshold was ordered to be revised by a single judge of the High Court last year. In a judgment passed on December 5, 2023, single-judge Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav had increased the threshold for income to secure admissions in schools under the EWS quota from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakhs.He further said that self-declaration of income should be immediately eradicated and that an appropriate framework should be put in place instead by the government..The Delhi government filed an appeal against the judgment..It argued that EWS admissions for the current session have already begun and that it is extremely difficult to implement the single-judge's order now.Delhi government’s Standing Counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi added that the direction that the poor people must show some document as income proof would hinder the education of their children as people of the lower strata of the society are unlikely to have any income proof.He further said that though the government has no issue with the substance of the December 2023 judgment or that the income threshold should be increased, the quantum of what that income should be is a policy decision for the government cabinet to take a call on. Tripathi added as per the EWS entitlement in Delhi, the threshold income shall be around ₹2.5 lakhs.