A bench of the Telangana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, today heard a case that was filed seeking free seats for poor students of the state in Telangana's private schools.
While a writ petition, filed by a private educational society, challenged the measure, it was a batch of PILs, that alleged that the stipulated 25% quota for poor students was not being implemented in the state, that prompted the bench to take up the matter with the state government.
On being questioned on the issue, Special Government Pleader Sanjeev Kumar told the HC that the government had been unable to implement the measure as a stay order had been issued on the quota after the Nalanda Educational Society had filed a writ petition challenging the same.
Kumar added that the petition was later transferred to the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Chief Justice Kohli then faulted the government for not having challenged the order at the AP apex court, and said that the failure to do so revealed the government's disinterest in addressing issues pertaining to the disadvantaged people of the state.
"Why did the Telangana government not get the stay vacated? The issue should have been addressed much earlier as it affected the disadvantaged and underprivileged people of the state" she said.
Kohli also instructed the government to furnish information on the status of the stay order at the earliest, and to challenge the order at the AP High Court as well.
She said that this was the "last opportunity" it was begin given, to comply with the Right to Education Act.
While the TRS regime is now contending with the issue of reservations in school, it had recently announced its decision to
implement a 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the state, in government educational institutions and in government jobs.
If the EWS quota is implemented, the total percentage of reservations in the state will reach 60% as it already has a 50% quota for SCs, STs, BCs and OBC Muslims.