The Delhi High Court on Tuesday disposed of a plea seeking direction to the Bar Council of India (BCI) to make the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, (RTE Act) a compulsory subject in all law schools.
The petition filed in a form of a PIL was dismissed by the division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Judge Subramonium Prasad, who also asked BCI to check into the matter and take the appropriate action.
The RTE Act would be considered by the BCI and decided upon within a fair time frame, it informed the High Court.
According to the PIL, which was submitted by an NGO Social Jurist through Advocates Ashok Aggarwal and Kumar Utkarsh, the Bar Council of India has not thought about making the RTE Act, 2009 a required subject in Centres for Legal Education.
The counsel representing BCI said during the hearing that the subject is heavily taught in law schools. It was told that questions on Constitutional Law exam papers are taken from Article 21A of the Constitution.
Taking note of the submissions, the court said the prayer made in the petition seems to be genuine.
“Without going into the merits of the matter, the petition is disposed of accordingly,” it said.
“The justiciability of the right to education places a great responsibility on lawyers — for lawyers alone can take violations to Court. In the context of a child, it places, by implication, an additional responsibility on the system of legal education to ensure that lawyers are familiarized with the details of manner in which this right is to be provided…,” the plea stated.
“It is submitted that perhaps much of the blame for the current inaction regarding violations of the right to education is because law students and lawyers are taught nothing about the right to education. Infact, majority of them are unaware about the fundamental of the rights incorporated in the RTE Act, 2009,” the plea added.
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