Supreme Court upheld the Constitutional Validity of the RTE Act, 2009

The Supreme Court of India on 12 April 2012 upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which mandates 25 per cent free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country. The apex court clarified that its judgment will come into force from 12 April 2012. However, the act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools. 

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar gave the ruling.

The   bench had reserved its verdict on 3August 2012 on a batch of petitions by private unaided institutions which had contended that the  section 12 (1)(c) of RTE Act violates the rights of private educational institutions under Article 19(1) (g) which provided autonomy to private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference.

 Right to Education Act (RTE) was passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009.The act came into force on 1 April 2010. It  has the provision of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child.

Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE act says that every recognized school imparting elementary education is obliged to admit underprivileged children even if it is not aiaded by the government to meet its expenses.