The Allahabad High Court in the present case observed that receiving proper education is a Fundamental Right enshrined under Article 21-A of the Constitution of India.
The precise facts and circumstances of the issue in question are that son of the deponent of this writ petition, namely master Tanishk Srivastava appeared in the entrance test on 20.03.2022 held for admission as Resident Scholar in the educational institution in question i.e. La Martiniere College, Lucknow for taking admission in Class-VIII. The result of the entrance test was declared on 25.03.2022 and the petitioner had successfully cleared the test.
Due to compelling circumstances, i.e., serious illness of mother of the candidate and his father being out of town for the purposes of service, the petitioner could not get admission in Class-VIII as Resident Scholar, therefore, an application was preferred by father of the candidate to the Principal of the Institution on 04.04.2022 through e-mail that instead of treating his son as a Resident Scholar, he may be given admission as Day Scholar as he is ready to complete all required formalities including the fees. The School, however, did not communicate their decision on the application. Petitioner’s father wrote to various authorities including the District Magistrate and to the Principal Secretary, Senior Secondary School Board, Lucknow but to no avail.
Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner’s father preferred a writ petition on 18.04.2022 but the same was dismissed on the pretext that it's not maintainable on the ground that the issue of the same institution has already been set at rest vide order dated 26.07.2016 passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in, Committee of Management, La Martiniere College, Lucknow and Anr V. Vatsal Gupta and Others, whereby the Hon'ble apex Court has held that the institution being an unaided minority private institution, therefore, the writ petition against such institution may not be entertained.
The petitioner went in appeal, but the appellate bench observed the observations of the Ld. Single Judge regarding maintainability has no error. However, it was also observed that-
“This is not a case where the student has not qualified the entrance examination for getting admission in particular class i.e. Class-VIII but this is a case where such student has qualified such entrance examination as Resident Scholar but due to compelling and unavoidable circumstances, he could not be able to get admission as Resident Scholar. Therefore, in such compelling circumstances, at least on the basis of principles of equity, it was bare minimum required on the part of the Principal of the institution to apprise the parents of the student that the institution would be unable to provide admission to their ward in Class-VIII as a Day Scholar student. This is a trite law that where there is no statutory prescription to redress the grievance of any aggrieved, the equitable principles would be applied inasmuch as no one should be left remediless.”
The bench also opined that if the request of the student/parents of the student was not liable to be accepted by the school, this decision should have been immediately conveyed to the parents so that, the Court added, the student could get admission in any other institution for receiving proper education inasmuch as to receive proper education is a Fundamental Right enshrined under Article 21-A of the Constitution of India.