Kareena Eugene
The Supreme Court in a recent judgement said that ‘access to education is not Government’s generosity’.
Two students from Ladakh, were nominated by the Union Territory administration for MBBS studies.
They were allocated seats in the prestigious medical colleges, Lady Hardinge and Maulana Azad. However, they were not admitted.
The students then moved to the Supreme Court saying that, “their fundamental rights and education was at the whims and fancies of the government authorities”.
A Bench consisting of Justices D.Y Chandrachud and MR. Shah pronounced the verdict in favour of the two students.
Justice Chandrachud stated in his judgement, “We would like to take this opportunity to underscore the importance of creating an enabling environment to make it possible for students, such as the petitioners, to pursue professional education. While the right to pursue higher (professional) education has not been spelt out as a fundamental right in Part III of the Constitution, it bears emphasis that access to professional education is not a government largesse”.
The judgement also read that, “This obligation assumes far greater importance for students whose background (by virtue if such characteristics as caste, class, gender, religion, disability and geographical region) imposes formidable obstacles on their path to accessing quality education”.
The Court mentioned that, the State has an “affirmative obligation to facilitate access to education at all levels”.