School’s deal with coaching class alleged

STD XI ADMISSIONS

Shibu Thomas TNN

Mumbai: A Pune parent has moved the Bombay high court alleging that his son’s school has handed over admissions for an entire division for standard XI to a private coaching class. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Ranjana Desai on Friday in an interim order restrained the Vikhe Patil Memorial School in Pune from finalizing the list of admissions for the division.

The court has issued notices to the school and the private coaching class FIT-JEE. The school has also been asked to submit the marks obtained by students who are proposed to be admitted to Standard XI for the current academic year.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Sandeep Joshi, whose son Shubhankar, a student of the

school, passed his standard X exams from the school this year. According to Joshi's lawyers the school has two divisions with a capacity of 40 each for standard XI. While one division was filled up with students on the basis of merit, the petition alleged that the second division was given to the coaching class and admissions to it were through an examination conducted by the private institute.

“The school has practically sold one class consisting of 40 students of standard XI to the private coaching class,” claimed the petitioner. The petition urged the court to direct the school to give admissions to both the divisions on merit and not on the basis of a “private arrangement’’ between the school and the coaching class. Joshi has asked for a stay on the final list of admissions for standard XI.