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The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the introduction of a common syllabus and curriculum for children upto the age of 14 years across the country.
A bench headed by justices Nageswara Rao told the petitioner that it could grant liberty to the petitioner to approach the high court if he chose to withdraw the plea. The petitioner advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, then, withdrew the petition. The court said the petition was dismissed as withdrawn and granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the high court. The plea said a common syllabus and curriculum would achieve the code of common culture, removal of disparity, and depletion of discriminatory values in human relations. The plea was filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay against certain sections of the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 alleging they are "arbitrary and irrational". The plea said the prevailing system does not provide equal opportunity to all children as the syllabus and curriculum varies for each strata of the society. It sought directions to the Centre to nullify provisions under the RTE Act that excluded religious institutions from its ambit for being arbitrary irrational and contrary to the Constitution. It said, "The right of a child should not be restricted only to free education but must be extended to have equal quality education without discrimination on the ground of child's social economic and cultural background. Therefore, the Court may declare Sections 1(4) and 1(5) arbitrary, irrational and violative of Articles 14, 15, 16, and 21 and direct the Centre to implement common syllabus and common curriculum for the students of I-VIII standard throughout the country." (ANI)
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