SC agrees to hear plea against UP govt's decision to merge primary schools
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi agreed to list the matter in the week after advocate Pradeep Yadav, appearing for petitioner Taiyyab Khan Salmani, sought an urgent hearing.
Yadav said over hundreds of government schools would be shut and thousands of primary students would be out of school, being forced to study in neighbhouring schools, if the government order of June 16 was not stayed.
He said the state government's order was challenged before the high court but it dismissed the pleas on July 7.
Justice Kant said though a policy decision, it was ready to examine the issue if government schools were being shut.
The plea said on June 16, the additional chief secretary of state's Basic Shiksha Department issued an order directing for taking steps for pairing of the schools managed under the supervision and control of the Basic Shiksha Adhikari and owned by the state government.
"Consequent to which on dated June 24, 2025 the actual list of the schools which are being paired being 105 in numbers has been issued," the plea said.
The high court dismissed the petitions on July 7 without considering the true facts and circumstances of the case that the said merger order will directly affect and destroy the already vulnerable education system in the state, it added.
The petitioner argued that the policy decision was arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of Article 21A of the Constitution as it offended the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and the rules framed by the state government.
The plea referred to Rule 4 and said it was incumbent for the state government to establish a school with respect to children from Class 1 to 5 in the habitation where there was no school within a distance of a kilometer and the habitation having a population of at least 300 people.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
19 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Over 20 states sue Trump over $6.8 billion frozen funds for after-school, summer programmes
More than 20 states have sued US President Donald Trump over the freezing of about $6.8 billion in funding for after-school, summer programmes and other programmes. The states have argued that the Donald Trump administration has violated the US Constitution by not considering Congress's sole authority over spending. (Bloomberg) Attorney generals or governors from 24 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island. They argued that the US department of education and the office of management (OMB) and Budget brought chaos to schools across America by freezing funding for six programmes approved by Congress. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson told ABC News, "This is plainly against the law." He went on to explain from a legal standpoint that this is "against the Constitution, against the Impoundment Act. This is not a hard case". According to the Impoundment Control Act, 1947, Congress must note and review the executive branch withholdings of budget authority. This requires the President to report any such withholdings to Congress. ALSO READ | 20 US states sue Trump administration over sharing of medical aid data with deportation officials While the Trump administration has been going after Ivy League universities head-on, freezing millions and billions of dollars in funding, the freeze also extended to the money used to support migrant farm workers and their childrens' education, recruitment and training of teachers, English proficiency learning and academic enrichment, besides the after-school and summer programmes. The lawsuit filed against Trump said that his administration was legally required to release the funds to the states by July 1, Reuters reported. Instead, the education department notified them on June 30 that the funds would not be released under those programmes as per the deadline, citing the change in administration as its reason. At the time, an OMB spokesperson reportedly said, "ongoing programmatic review" of education funding and said initial findings showed what he termed as a misuse of grant funds to "subsidize a radical leftwing agenda." The department also raised objections to the grant money being used to support scholarship for immigrant students and LGBTQ-themed lessons. The Democratic-led states said that the freeze has resulted in cancellations of summer school and after-school programmes and the halting of other initiatives, with little time for schools to fill in the gaps in their budget. ALSO READ | Trump administration sues California over transgender athletes in schools The states have argued that the Trump administration has violated the US Constitution by not considering Congress's sole authority over spending and went against the federal administrative law by freezing funds without any logical explanation. They also said that the administration failed to abide by the Impoundment Control Act, which prevents the executive branch from single-handedly refusing to spend funds approved by Congress unless certain procedures are followed. Jackson further told ABC News, "If the courts don't act promptly, the consequences will be dire." He warned that districts face the threat of immediate harm as the school year is nearing. The North Carolina Attorney General said that the massive effect of the pause could also result in the firing of about 1,000 educators in the district. "Everybody knows when it comes to juvenile crime, you want a safe place for teenagers to be able to go, to be able to keep them out of trouble," Jackson said, adding that elimination of after-school programmes across the US has never been considered a "good idea". ALSO READ | 12 states sue Donald Trump administration in trade court to stop tariff policy Alabama State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey said that this will affect the students with the "greatest need". He told ABC News, "The loss of funding for those rural, poor, high poverty school districts, is just going to be, you know, more fuel for the fire that makes it more difficult to educate children in those communities." Christy Gleason, executive director of Save the Children Action Network, which provides after-school programming for 41 schools in rural areas of Washington and across the South, where the school year is set to begin as soon as August, said, "Time is of the essence." "It's not too late to make a decision, so the kids who really need this still have it," she added.
India Today
24 minutes ago
- India Today
Supreme Court allows Trump to restart mass layoffs at education department
The US Supreme Court on Monday gave the Trump administration the green light to resume layoffs of over 1,300 employees at the Department of Education and press forward with a controversial plan to dismantle the agency an unsigned order, the justices lifted a lower court's block on the firings, enabling President Donald Trump to push ahead with one of his boldest efforts to shrink the federal government and shift power over education back to the will likely cripple the department,' warned US District Judge Myong Joun of Boston in a previous ruling, which reinstated nearly 1,400 laid-off employees and froze the administration's attempts to redistribute the department's responsibilities to other federal agencies. That ruling was backed by a federal appeals court, but the Supreme Court, in a 6–3 decision with the three liberal justices dissenting, paused the order, clearing the way for the White House to continue winding down the layoffs and departmental shutdown have been opposed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general, school districts, and education unions. In court filings, they argued that the administration's actions risk undermining key federal education duties, such as enforcing civil rights, managing student loans, and supporting students with disabilities.'Trump's shutdown efforts threatened to impair the department's ability to perform its core duties,' the plaintiffs Secretary Linda McMahon said it's a 'shame' it took the Supreme Court's intervention to let Trump's plan move ahead.'Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organisation, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,' McMahon said in a Department of Education, established by Congress in 1979, does not dictate curriculum or classroom instruction—those powers are left to states and localities, which provide the lion's share of school funding. But it plays a critical role in distributing aid to needy schools, ensuring compliance with federal education law, and collecting national data on student Monday, more than 20 states also sued the administration over billions of dollars in frozen education funding for after-school care, summer programs and more. Education Department employees who were targeted by the layoffs have been on paid leave since March, according to a union that represents some of the agency's staff.- EndsTune InMust Watch
India Today
25 minutes ago
- India Today
Trump threatens 100% tariffs on Russia, US conducts military drills at Panama Canal, more
24:09 The case of Nimisha Priya, a Kerala nurse facing execution in Yemen on July 16th for murdering a Yemeni national in 2017, has reached a critical juncture. The Indian government informed the Supreme Court that despite diplomatic efforts, including recent talks with Yemeni authorities, no reprieve has been granted.
