School admission: Delhi High Court reduces income limit under EWS quota; All you need to know

livemint.com:

₹2.5 lakhs per annum. A division bench of the Delhi High Court revised an earlier order by a single-judge that had increased the income limit for school admissions under EWS category. The income limit was earlier increased from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakhs per annum.

On March 5, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora ruled that the threshold income would be ₹2.5 lakhs per annum, Bar and Bench reported. Moreover, bench stayed the directions issued by the single judge that required eradication of the mechanism of accepting self-declarations of income. The Delhi HC division bench ruled, “Till further orders, there shall be a stay on the directions contained in paragraph 119 of the impugned judgement.

The threshold income under the EWS category shall be increased from ₹1 lakh to ₹2.5 lakh till further orders," Bar and Bench reported. Earlier, parents with a total income of less than ₹1 lakh per year who have been residing in Delhi for the last three years, were considered eligible to get their child admitted under EWS category. Last year, a single judge of the High Court ordered to revise this income threshold.

Later, in December last year, single-judge Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav increased the income limit to secure admissions in schools under the EWS quota from ₹1 lakh to ₹5 lakhs per annum. The court further ruled that self-declaration of income should be immediately eradicated and that an appropriate framework should be put in place by the government. The Delhi government filed an appeal against this December 5 judgment arguing that EWS admissions for the current session have already begun.