Denial Of Admission To Class XI Citing Low Score In Maths: Mother Moves Kerala High Court Against CBSE School

 A  mother of a Class XI student has approached the Kerala High Court seeking a direction to the CBSE and Choice School against denial of admission to Class XI (Science Stream) citing low marks in Mathematics. 

Justice Anu Sivaraman has posted the matter to next week for further consideration.

The petitioner's elder daughter recently sought to join the Science stream in Class XI upon completion of Class X.  However, she did not choose Math as a subject in her options. The online classes for Class XI were declared to commence by June 4th.

Nevertheless, the respondent School allegedly denied her admission to the science group on the ground that her  Math score in the onsite exam was not sufficient to secure such admission.    

Advocate H. Ramanan appeared on behalf of the petitioner and argued that as per the CBSE's scheme of studies, students are allowed to take any combination of subjects without any streaming, which has to be strictly followed by all CBSE schools.  

The same scheme of studies mandated that Class XI admission for students of the same school is considered as a promotion, and explicitly specified that they should be offered any combination of subjects without streaming. 

The petitioner challenged the decision of the Management asserting that it was against the CBSE rules and regulations as well as the new Education policy of the Centre. 

The respondent School apparently justified its stand on the ground that they 'only act according to their own policy decision', which implies that they are oblivious to the CBSE rules and the said Education policy. Moreover, the Vice Principal reportedly informed that they have to accommodate new students from other schools in Class XI as well.

Apart from that, the School allegedly coerced the petitioner to pay the admission fee and related fees before 12th May to book a seat for her daughter in the Humanities Stream, against the student's preference. 

When the petitioner and her daughter objected to this proposal, they were asked to wait till the results of the Class X examinations were published to book a seat in the Science stream. This would be detrimental to the student since the results will not be published before the commencement of classes.

The petitioner has also emphasized that the School authorities themselves certified the academic excellence and good conduct of her children. 

The said decision is violative of the standard operating procedure for admission to Classes IX and XI included in the framework and significant guidelines of 2020-21 formulated by the School, the petitioner alleged. 

Additionally, there is no mandate from CBSE that new students from other schools have to be accommodated mandatorily in Class XI, especially at the cost of the students already enrolled in the same school. Therefore, the stand of the respondent School was alleged to be arbitrary and illegal. 

To support this argument, reliance was placed on the Apex Court decision in Principal Kendriya Vidyalaya Vs Sourabh Chaudhary wherein it was held that the schools shall admit the students of the same school first because it is a promotion and not a fresh admission in Class XI. The Court further observed that depriving admission to students of the same school in the name of securing less percentage of marks in Class X is contrary to law. 

Aggrieved by the respondent School's move, the petitioner sought information regarding the same via RTI. Links to two sites were sent to the petitioner as a response to this, whereby it was disclosed that the stand taken by the School and its Vice-Principal was in violation of CBSE rules and regulations.

Although the online classes have commenced last month, the petitioner's daughter was not permitted to attend them on the ground that the hefty re-admission fee of Rs. 35,000 was not paid in full by the petitioner. 

The petitioner also pointed out that the Principal and the Vice-Principal of the respondent School had ulterior motives against her daughter, and that this was a calculated move on their behalf. She additionally asserted that her daughter was deliberately marked low in math in the internal assessment to make her drop the subject.

It was submitted that the petitioner filed several representations and complaints expressing her grievance, but no action was taken by the concerned authorities. 

The Single Bench directed CBSE to obtain instructions in the matter, specifically regarding the marks obtained by the last candidate who secured admission in Class XI (Science Stream) in the said school.

The Court orally opined that there was nothing on record to suggest any fixed criteria to deny admission to a student who scored low marks in Mathematics in Class XI Science Stream. The matter will be heard in detail once the Counsel for respondents receives instructions.

Case Title: X v The Choice School & Ors.