The Delhi High Court has emphasized that schools must follow the results of the computerized lottery conducted by the Directorate of Education (DoE) for enrolling students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Justice C Hari Shankar explained that schools conduct lotteries based on their own class capacity. If there are not enough students in the general category, the school must ask the DoE to adjust the count of EWS students. The school cannot change the lottery's outcome on its own.

The court's instruction stems from a situation in which a student applied for entry into a private school's pre-primary class after being chosen through the DoE's lottery system. The school refused admission, claiming a mismatch between the real number of general category admissions and the one reported to the DoE. It had already occupied 25 per cent of general category slots with EWS candidates, as required by law.

"Once a school communicates the number of general category and EWS seats available with it for being filled in an ensuing academic year to the DoE and the DoE, on that basis, conducts a computerised draw of lots, the school is bound to admit the EWS students who are, based on the said computerised draw of lots, found eligible for admission to its portals," the court said in the recent order.

"The school cannot then turn around and say that as the actual number of general category students, which it could ultimately admit, was less than the strength of general category seats communicated by it to the DoE, there should be a proportionate reduction in the number of EWS students, which it can admit for that year, and, on that basis, reject to admit students who, based on the data provided by the school itself, have been shortlisted for admission," the court said.

The court's decision states that when a school informs the Department of Education about the availability of general and EWS seats, it is obligated to respect the outcome of the lottery. The school cannot later argue for a decrease in EWS admissions due to changes in general category admissions. In this instance, as the lottery was conducted according to the school's communicated seat count for the 2023-24 academic year, the petitioner should be granted admission.

"The petitioner would be entitled to be imparted education by the school as an EWS candidate as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act and the various circulars, guidelines and other instructions issued by the DoE in that regard," the court further added.