1.17 lakh seats available for admission under RTI, Gujarat govt to HC

The state government told the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday that 1.17 lakh seats are available for admission under the Right to Education (RTE) Act for the poor and needy children in schools in the state in 2019-20. Parents have filed over two lakh forms for these seats so far, the government told a division bench of acting Chief Justice Anant Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav.

More than two lakh admission forms under the RTE Act have been received at over 10,000 schools and government centres have confirmed accepting 1.5 lakh of them after scrutiny, it said. The government's response came on a PIL filed by RTE activist Sandip Munjyasara, who had sought details such as the number of seats available under the act, participating schools and how many of them are run by minority institutions which are exempted from the act.

The PIL also sought framing of rules under the RTE Act so that the admission process is completed before the start of the academic year. The government said Wednesday that 1.17 lakh seats are available under the RTE Act for the academic year 2019-20, more than 76,431 seats available in 2018-19, 55,105 in 2017-18 and 46,595 in 2016-17.

The court said it will hear the matter in detail Friday and directed the government to provide its reply on an affidavit.