Kapil Sibal made Amicus in Sanskriti school’s challenge to quota quashing

The Central government and Sanskriti school have appealed to the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court’s judgment quashing the reservation afforded to children of Group A government officers in the school..Senior Advocates KK Venugopal and Sidharth Luhtra appeared for Sanskriti school yesterday along with advocates Prashanto Sen and Ramesh Singh. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi is representing the Central government in the matter..The Court yesterday appointed Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal as Amicus Curiae in the case..Sanskriti school was established by “The Civil Services Society” for providing school education to children of officers of the All India and Central Services. Sixty percent of the seats are reserved for children of Group-A officers while 25 percent seats are reserved for children from the economically weaker sections as per guidelines issued by the Government of Delhi. An additional five percent of the seats are reserved for the staff of the school..The school was given land at concessional rate by the government which also bore the expenses for construction of the school building. On this basis, the Delhi High court exercised suo moto writ jurisdiction over the school and held that the 60 percent reservation violated Articles 14 and 21. It proceeded to quash the reservation and directed the Union Government to take an appropriate decision with regard to the school – in particular whether the school can be made part of the existing Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan..The judgment of the High Court has resulted in a number of Constitutional questions being raised before the Supreme Court – particularly with regard to whether a private school which has obtained land at a concessional rate and some initial grant from public exchequer, but is otherwise an unaided school, is amenable to writ jurisdiction..Sanskriti has contended that obtaining land at concessional rate is not a criterion for holding that school falls the ambit of “State” under Article 12 since most of the private schools in Delhi has received government land. It is Sanskriti’s contention that it is a private unaided school and not “State” under Article 12. Sanskriti has also contended that reservation of seats for children of Group A officers is valid – and such similar reservation has been done in schools run by the Army, Navy etc..KK Venugopal submitted yesterday that school is one which provides free education to economically backward children and is an unaided private school and therefore writ petition will not lie against it. Venugopal requested the court to pass an interim order permitting the school to continue with the admission process under the old scheme till the case is decided..Attorney General Rohatgi argued that many of the private schools in Delhi functioned on land which belongs to the Central government and the judgment will open a pandora’s box..The Division Bench of Anil R Dave and AK Goel JJ heard the parties at length before seeking the assistance of Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal..This was after Senior Advocate Anil Divan turned down the request to assist the court citing health reasons. Sibal said that his nephew’s children are students in the school and none of the parties should allege conflict of interest later. Rohatgi and Venugopal said that they had no objection whereupon Sibal was appointed Amicus Curiae in the matter..The case will now be taken up on January 7 when the court will decided whether to pass an interim order after hearing Sibal..Image courtesy:.Kapil Sibal.Sidharth Luthra