Private school not allowing poor kids to leave over unpaid dues

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has initiated a PIL to look into a private unaided school's decision not to grant school-leaving certificates to two of its students, who could no longer afford to study there due to their family's poor financial condition.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Brijesh Sethi has issued notice to the Delhi government and the school, seeking their response, after the court received a letter bringing to its attention the plight of the two brothers -- aged nine and five years.

The letter, sent through a lawyer, said the two boys, whose father was a labourer, could no longer afford to study in the school and when their parents tried to get them admitted elsewhere, the school management refused to grant them school-leaving certificates over unpaid dues.

Without the certificates, the children could not be admitted in another school, the letter said and sought the court's intervention. The communication was received by the high court's PIL committee in May and it decided to take up the issue as a public interest litigation (PIL). The bench has made lawyer Ashok Agarwal an amicus curiae -- friend of the court -- to assist it in the matter which is listed for hearing on July 2.