The Delhi High Court has adjusted the income limit for school admissions under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category, reducing it to ₹2.5 lakhs per annum.
A division bench of the Delhi High Court revised a previous order by a single judge that had raised the income limit for school admissions under the EWS category from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakhs per annum.
According to a report by Bar and Bench, on March 5, a bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora ruled that the income threshold would now be ₹2.5 lakhs per annum. Additionally, the bench stayed the directions issued by the single judge that sought to eliminate the mechanism of accepting self-declarations of income.
As reported by Bar and Bench, the Delhi HC division bench stated, “Till further orders, there shall be a stay on the directions contained in paragraph 119 of the impugned judgment. The threshold income under the EWS category shall be increased from ₹1 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh till further orders.”
Previously, parents with a total income of less than ₹1 lakh per year who had been residing in Delhi for the past three years were considered eligible for their child’s admission under the EWS category. Last year, a single judge of the High Court ordered a revision to this income threshold. In December of the same year, single judge Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav increased the income limit for securing admissions in schools under the EWS quota to ₹5 lakhs per annum. The court also ruled for the immediate elimination of self-declaration of income and called for the implementation of an appropriate framework by the government.
The Delhi government filed an appeal against this judgment, arguing that EWS admissions for the current session had already commenced. The government pointed out the challenges in implementing the single judge’s order amidst the ongoing admission process. Furthermore, Delhi government’s Standing Counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi highlighted the difficulties faced by poor families in providing income proof as required by the court’s order, suggesting that the threshold income should be around ₹2.5 lakhs based on EWS entitlement in Delhi.
