Supreme Court asks Center government in Punjab to charge for not implementing 25% RTE quota in schools
Supreme Court of India. File | Photo credit: S. Subramanium
The Supreme Court on Monday (June 15, 2026) asked the Center and the Punjab government to respond to a plea alleging non-implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (2009 Act) in Punjab, particularly the mandate under Section 12(1)(a).
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At the start of the hearing, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice V Mohan asked the petitioner, who runs an NGO and appeared in court in person, whether he had done any research to substantiate the allegations.
“Have you been able to identify any schools that are not implementing the law?” Lavička asked.
KS Raju, the petitioner, said that the law remained unimplemented in Punjab for the last 15 years. He further argued that the state’s inaction was in clear violation of the Supreme Court’s 2012 judgment in Rajasthan Unaided Private Schools Corporation v Union of India, which upheld the constitutional validity of the 2009 Act.
“A minimum of 50,000 students must be admitted (under the RTE Act). According to government statistics, nearly two million students are admitted every year at the entry level… This is an ongoing uproar,” he said.
The Bench, however, referred to an affidavit filed earlier by the state government which stated that over 476 students from economically weaker sections were admitted in the private schools. The Chief Justice, therefore, asked Mr. Raja to conduct a survey in at least one district to find out the number of private schools and how many of them did not comply with the provisions of the Act.
“…Do at least one district survey. Do it for some relatively backward area. Find out how many private schools there are and how many have refused to implement the law,” the Bench said.
When Mr. Raju said that he had filed an RTI application in the matter last year, the Bench noted that the limitation on RTI responses was that the authorities would only respond in accordance with the nature of the questions put to them.
Accordingly, the Bench issued a notice of objection but asked the petitioner to conduct research in the meantime and submit additional materials to the court.
The petition asks the Center to put in place a transparent mechanism to monitor compliance with the Section 12 mandate in Punjab, including publicly accessible dashboards to monitor implementation.
The provisions of § 12 paragraph 1 letter (c) mandates private unaided schools to reserve at least 25% seats at the primary level for children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups and to provide them with free and compulsory primary education till its completion.
The plea also seeks directions to put in place an enforcement mechanism in Punjab to implement this provision. It calls for the publication of vacancies, a notified admission timetable, a framework for reimbursement to schools and action against institutions that do not comply with the law.
Published – 15 Jun 2026 20:25 IST