HC hits out at school for not providing admission to spl child

CHENNAI: Justice CV Karthikeyan of the Madras High Court made strong observations against a private school in Vellore for not extending admission to an eight-year-old special child with Mild Autism Spectrum disorder.

The judge stated that the institution had not only denied admission to the special child but it had also brought disrepute to the Christian missionary in whose name the school was functioning.

"The sixth respondent school is quite pathetically and ironically named after a third-generation American Medical Missionary in India. It makes me wonder whether those in administration today are riding on that name without following her principles or the core conduct which the noble lady adhered to," the judge wrote.

The judge made this observation on hearing the petition filed by the mother of the special child for a direction to the school education department to order the school to provide admission to her daughter as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and National Trust for Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation, and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.

When the school management submitted that it would appoint special educators to provide education to the special child, the judge noted that the submission was shallow and nothing was concrete.

The government advocate informed the court that there are three schools functioning to offer education to the special child and the state would ensure no children are left away from access to education.

Recording the submissions, the judge disposed of the petition observing that it cannot thrust any child into an institution and it is open to the petitioner/mother to find out the proper educational environment for her child.