The High Court of Karnataka has reserved judgment on a 1995 petition challenging various provisions of the Karnataka education Act, 1983.
The provisions that have been challenged include reservation for appointment of staff in unaided schools and prescribing of syllabus by the state government.
On Thursday, the High Court had reserved the matter for judgment after the government failed to file any objection.
Private schools in Karnataka have approached the High Court of Karnataka, seeking, inter alia, permission to draft textbooks on their own.
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The Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA) in its plea has demanded that “the State Government should not prescribe any particular publication or textbook as the sole and exclusive reading material in private unaided schools; And that, private unaided schools are free to choose textbooks of their choice, so long as such textbooks follow the syllabus prescribed by the State Government.” challenged the provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983 in this regard Has been.
KUSMA has also challenged several other provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, including Section 5 read with Section 41(3), which provides for reservation in the matter of appointment of teaching and non-teaching staff in private unaided schools. determines.
It has demanded to abolish this section, calling it unconstitutional.
The petition also sought a direction to the State Government not to implement the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education, which enforces reservation of seats in private unaided schools in favor of weaker sections and disadvantaged groups Is.
Another challenge has been raised to Section 7(1)(f) of the same Act. The petition states that private unaided educational institutions “should be allowed to set a reasonable fee structure and not be subjected to a rigid and conservative fee structure imposed by the government.” On Thursday, the petition came up for hearing before a division bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Vishwajit Shetty.
Kusama’s advocate KV Dhananjay pointed to the recent controversy about Savarkar in Karnataka government textbooks.
He also cited the example of 1984 Sikh riots and said that even Sikh schools cannot teach them. The matter has been reserved for judgement.
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