New Delhi, Jan 23 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday upheld the city government’s decision to provide cash directly to private schools students under the Economically Weaker Section and disadvantaged
group categories for buying their uniforms, observing the authorities will face “genuine” difficulties in processing individual orders for every student.
While modifying its previous direction to the authorities to provide actual uniforms, the court ruled that the government’s decision to give a subsidy through ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ was not contrary to the mandate of the Right To Education (RTE) Act. The court further observed that this method would ensure students receive their uniform on time.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Subramonium Prasad, asked the Delhi government to ensure that an adequate amount was provided to the students “well within time and at the earliest”.
“Undoubtedly, it would be impossible to carry-out the exercise of taking measurements of every student, placing orders for different kinds of uniform cloth on the GeM portal, after procurement of the material getting the uniforms stitched as per the measurements and finally distributing the uniforms in schools before the commencement of a new session,” the bench said.
“The decision taken by the government to provide money to the students directly so that they can buy the uniforms would ensure that the uniforms are available to the students in time,” the bench said. “The decision taken by the government cannot be said to be contrary to the mandate of the RTE Act and the 2011 Rules. Under the 2011 Rules, there is a mandate to provide uniforms but the rules do not state that the government has to provide uniforms in kind only.” The court passed the order on a review petition filed by the Delhi government seeking to modify a previous direction issued on April 13, 2023. That earlier order came on a petition by the NGO ‘Justice For All,’ which sought the provision of free books, uniforms and other study materials to for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students in aided and unaided private schools.
The Delhi government informed the court that its cabinet believed that procurement and distribution of uniforms in kind would not be feasible due to operational constraints and therefore, a new policy decision was taken in June 2025 to pay between Rs 1,250 to Rs 1,700 per student for uniform.
In the judgement, the court said there was no infirmity in the decision making process and the policy did not show that there was any intent of malafide.
“In view of the above, this Court does not find fault with the Policy dated 10.06.2025. Resultantly, the Order dated 13.04.2023 to the extent that it is applicable to uniforms is modified and the GNCTD is directed to ensure that adequate amount is provided in accordance with the Policy decision taken by the Government well within time and at the earliest,” it stated. PTI ADS AKY AKY
