Rajasthan High Court Permits Admission In Navodaya Vidyalaya To Student Who Couldn't Attend 'Full Academic Session' Due To Pandemic

Rajasthan High Court has directed granting of admission to a student in the Shri School Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (“the School”) who did not attend 3^rd standard for full one academic session on account of the classes commencing with a few months delay due to Covid, as against the selection guidelines that required the candidate to pass standards 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th after spending one full academic session.

The bench of Justice Vinit Kumar Mathur observed that the clause specifying this condition in the guidelines had to be given a liberal reading in a way that- the situation which was beyond the student's control does not come in the way of his admission.

“In the opinion of this Court, the interpretation of clause 4.4 has to be liberal and, therefore, in the present circumstances, the benefit needs to be extended to the petitioner, more particularly when he has completed his complete one year academic sessions in IV and V standards respectively. Therefore, this court is of the view that the ground for denial of admission by the respondents vide letter/order dated 05.09.2024 is arbitrary and unreasonable.”

The Court was hearing a writ petition filed by a student, through his natural guardian, against the decision of the principal of the School to deny him the admission on the ground of him not completing one full academic session in 3^rd standard.

It was the case of the petitioner that the academic session 2021-22 in his primary school, when he was in 3^rd standard, was scheduled to start in April 2021 but on account of Covid-19 it began with a delay of a few months i.e. in September 2021. Immediately after the session began, it was attended by the petitioner followed by complete academic sessions in standard 4^th and 5^th.

However, even after passing the selection test of the School, he was denied admission on the ground that he failed to complete the full academic session in his standard 3^rd, despite the fact that the gap in the academic year was due to pandemic which was out of his control. It was argued that denial of admission on this ground was “very harsh, arbitrary and unreasonable.”

Contrary to this, the counsel for the respondents argued that as per the testing guidelines of the School, the eligibility criteria included that the candidate must have passed standards 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th after attending each of these for one complete academic session. Since this was not fulfilled by the petitioner, he was not entitled for the admission.

After hearing the contentions, the Court opined that it was an undisputed fact that the country was facing pandemic and the reasons for not attending the classes for the first few months was beyond the control of the petitioner.

“The global health crisis, coupled with the widespread disruptions such as the closure of educational institutions, delays in admission processes and unforeseen challenges in meeting the academic deadlines constitutes a clear case of force majeure. These uncontrollable events prevented the petitioner from taking the classes of one full academic year in III standard.”

In this background, the Court opined that it was conscious of its limitation in giving guidelines for admission in educational institution wherein no deviation was warranted from the guidelines. However, keeping in mind the admission in the primary/ upper primary classes, a liberal approach was needed. Hence, it was opined to provide relaxation to the petitioner in the requirement which would not cause any major deviation from the testing guidelines.

Accordingly, the petition was allowed, and directions were given to immediately admit the petitioner and allow him to attend the classes

Title: Devendra Prajapat v Union of India and Ors.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 388

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