Delhi HC issues notice on PIL challenging govt's decision to reimburse tuition fees to minority-community students

New Delhi [India], September 6 (ANI): The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the government of NCT Delhi in response to a plea challenging the Impugned Policy decision, which grants reimbursement of tuition and other compulsory fees to minority-community students enrolled from Classes 1 to 12 in Delhi NCT whose annual family income is below Rs 3 lakhs.
The bench of Justice Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad in an order passed on August 26, 2022, has issued notice to all respondents including the government of NCT Delhi in the matter.
According to the argument, only students from minority communities are eligible for this reimbursement program and persons who belong to families with lower levels of income are excluded solely on the grounds of their religion and caste.
The plea also submitted that Article 15 of the Constitution of India prohibits a state from discriminating between the citizens of India, on grounds of race, religion, caste, sex or place of birth etc. however Article 15(4) and 15(6) acting as enabling provisions, and permit the state to discriminate in favour of certain classes of citizens positively.
Article15 (4) permits the state to make provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for Schedule Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).
Petitioner Avinash Mehrotra through a plea stated that Article 15(6) of the Constitution enables a state to create a special provision for economically weaker sections of society.
It does not however permit the state to give a benefit only to economically weaker sections of society from particular religions or castes.
Through plea, the petitioner seeks issuance of court direction to declare that the impugned policy of the Respondent is ultra vires the Constitution of India and quash the same.
It also seems, that the direction to partially striking down the impugned policy insofar as it uses the word 'minorities' and directs the respondent to provide the benefit of the impugned policy to all low-income households, who would benefit from the policy if it had not been limited to 'minorities, plea read. (ANI)