{"id":345650,"date":"2025-09-03T11:58:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=345650"},"modified":"2025-09-03T11:58:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:28:59","slug":"rte-and-minority-educational-institutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rte-and-minority-educational-institutions\/","title":{"rendered":"RTE and Minority Educational Institutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; The Supreme Court has recently referred the issue of the applicability of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) to minority educational institutions for reconsideration by a larger Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India.<\/p>\n<p>This has revived a decade-long debate on the balance between the right of children to education (Article 21A) and the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions (Article 30(1)).<\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border-style: solid; background-color: #f2fffd;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Background: Pramati Educational &amp; Cultural Trust Case (2014)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A five-judge Constitution Bench ruled that the <em>RTE Act could not be applied to minority institutions, whether aided or unaided<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reasoning-<\/strong>\u00a0Compulsory admission of non-minority children under Section 12(1)(c) (25% reservation for disadvantaged children) of RTE Act could dilute or destroy the \u201cminority character\u201d of these institutions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Outcome-<\/strong>\u00a0Minority institutions were granted complete exemption from compliance with the RTE Act.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>Recent developments<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A two-judge Bench (Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan), while hearing the <em>TET case<\/em> (<em>Anjuman Ishaat-e-Taleem Trust v. State of Maharashtra<\/em>), questioned the correctness of the Pramati ruling.<\/li>\n<li>The Bench observed that exempting minority schools from the RTE Act may jeopardise children\u2019s fundamental right to quality education.<\/li>\n<li>It emphasised that <em>Articles 21A and 30(1) must co-exist<\/em> and that neither should be treated as an unqualified \u201ctrump card\u201d over the other.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; border-style: solid; background-color: #faf0f0;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><strong>Relevant Constitutional Provisions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article 21A<\/strong> \u2013 Guarantees free and compulsory elementary education to children aged 6\u201314 years.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Article 30(1)<\/strong> \u2013 Grants minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Article 15(5) \u2013<\/strong> Enables the state to make special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes, SCs, and STs in educational institutions, excluding minority institutions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>Court\u2019s Observations<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Implementation of the RTE Act does not erode minority rights under Article 30(1).<\/li>\n<li>Exemption of minority schools weakens inclusivity and fragments the vision of a common schooling system.<\/li>\n<li>The 25% quota under Section 12(1)(c) need not necessarily be filled by non-minority students; it <em>can include disadvantaged children from the minority community itself<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Blanket exemption has encouraged misuse, with several private schools seeking \u201cminority status\u201d to avoid RTE obligations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It makes free and compulsory education a fundamental right for all children aged 6\u201314 years.<\/li>\n<li>It mandates 25% reservation in private unaided schools for children from disadvantaged groups.<\/li>\n<li>It sets minimum norms for pupil-teacher ratios, infrastructure, and teacher qualifications.<\/li>\n<li>It bans practices like capitation fees and corporal punishment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News&#8211; The Supreme Court has recently referred the issue of the applicability of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) to minority educational institutions for reconsideration by a larger Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India. This has revived a decade-long debate on the balance between the right&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rte-and-minority-educational-institutions\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">RTE and Minority Educational Institutions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760,12039],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-345650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}