Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 24

The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions has said in a recent order that minority schools were not bound to reserve any seats for the students of the EWS category. In an order on March 14, the Commission has said that the DPI cannot make any such decisions as they fall in the domain of the state government.

The case was filed by St Kabir School against Assistant Estate Officer of the UT. He had sent the minority school a show-cause notice. The notice said that the school had violated the terms of the allotment letter by not reserving seats for the EWS students. The notice had quoted the Chandigarh Administration’s 2005 notification for reserving 15 per cent seats for the EWS students and charging nominal fee. The school had replied with a Supreme Court judgment saying that minority schools were not bound to reserve any such seats. The Assistant Estate Officer in his reply said, “The notice is being sent as per Chandigarh’s Allotment and land rules. The land was given to the school at concessional rates and they thus had to reserve seats.”

The Commission, however, observed that the allotment letter did not prove that the land was given at any concessional rates. Also, the Commission observed that there was no condition in the allotment letter regarding any reservation of seats for the EWS students.