Dismissal of Petition for Admission to 7th Standard Due to Delay and Laches.
01 March 2024
Education >> Miscellaneous
In this case of Vedant Baban Nandgavkar & Others v/s The Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, (An Autonomous Organisation), under Ministry of Human Resources Development & Others, the Petitioners challenged the cancellation of their 6th standard admission by the Respondent Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (JNV) and sought admission to the 7th standard for the academic year 2022-2023. The Petitioners had cleared the selection test for admission to 6th standard but their admission was canceled due to discrepancies in their application. They later pursued their 6th standard education at another school and claimed the right to be admitted to 7th standard at JNV.
The Respondents opposed the petition, citing delay and laches (lack of timely action) in approaching the court, as the petition was filed more than a year after the cancellation communication. The court noted that the Petitioners had not provided a satisfactory explanation for the delay, and since they had already enrolled in another school for the 6th standard, they had effectively accepted the cancellation of their admission. Additionally, the petitioners' claim to admission in 7th standard based on the 2021 selection test for 6th standard was deemed invalid.
The court also found that the petitioners had not shown immediate legal action following the cancellation, and the delay in filing the petition (from November 2021 to February 2023) was unjustified. Therefore, the petition was dismissed on the grounds of delay and laches, with no loss of academic year as the petitioners had already joined another school. The petitioners' request for admission to 7th standard was also rejected. The dismissal applied to both the writ petitions in question.