NEW DELHI: An aspirant has moved Delhi High Court against the admission guidelines for the Delhi government's School of Specialised Excellence (SOSE). Under the guidelines, the admissions to these 31 schools are open only to the students studying in Delhi. This disqualifies the petitioner despite his parents being residents of Delhi as he was studying at a boarding school in Haryana after Class VIII. Till then, he was enrolled in a private school in Delhi. His lawyer, Ashish Verma, said the matter had been listed for March 3. The last date for submitting forms for the SOSE admissions is March 6.
SOSEs offer specialised streams, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); humanities; high-end 21st century skills; performing and visual arts, and from this year, Armed Forces Preparatory School (AFPS). The admission takes place through an entrance test. For STEM and AFPS, the admission is also conducted for Class IX and they are part of Delhi Board of School Education (DBSE) following the International Baccalaureate curriculum.
The admission policy not only requires a candidate to be a student of a city school but also needs his parents to be residents of Delhi. At least 50% of the students admitted to SoSE must be from government or government-aided schools.
“A notice was issued by the court, but the government maintained that they wanted to retain this criteria. With this petition, all we are saying is let the child at least fill the form and appear for the entrance," said Verma.
According to the petition, the father of the petitioner was also born in Delhi in 1977 and has been residing here since his birth. The parents, who are registered voters in Delhi, shifted the boy to the boarding school near Kurukshetra in 2020 for better education and growth. "It was expected by the parents that spending some years in boarding environment would help in the holistic development and growth of the petitioner and would grant him better exposure," the petition adds.
Arguing that the criterion for admission is biased, the petition claims that 100% reservation for students residing in Delhi is illegal and violates Article 14 – right to equality – of the Constitution. It also adds that just studying outside Delhi does not make the petitioner an outsider.
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