LUCKNOW: Magsaysay awardee and social activist

Sandeep Pandey

has, through his lawyer

Shashank Singh

sent a legal notice to the

Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations

(

CISCE

) seeking cancellation/withdrawal of affiliation of City Montessori School, Indiranagar. Pandey alleged that the school is running on a building whose land acquisition is illegal, and that his claims are acquired through an RTI.

The notice calls upon the CISCE chief executive and secretary to issue show cause to

CMS Indira Nagar

in relation to the suppression of information while receiving affiliation, and to take action or initiate an enquiry against the responsible person involved in granting affiliation to school without proper scrutiny and inspection, within 15 days from receipt of the notice. And in case, no response is received from CMS, Indiranagar within 15 days, the schools' affiliation to be revoked.

The rulebook for a school seeking affiliation states that there should be adequate infrastructure for accommodating the numbers and gender of pupils attending the school, classes will be conducted only on the premises for which affiliation is granted as per the No Objection Certificate. The school, according to the rules should have a minimum of 2000 square metres of land, suitable buildings constructed on a part of the land and proper playgrounds on the remaining land with adequate facilities as prescribed from time to time by the CISCE, among others.

According to Pandey, the school has a student strength of 1100 (as displayed on website) and in view of the affiliation norms, the said school is not sufficient enough to accommodate such number of students.