Delhi High Court bars school from running higher secondary classes, initiates contempt proceedings

New Delhi: In a crackdown on the functioning of a school that enrolled hundreds of students in higher secondary classes, Delhi High Court on Wednesday barred it from running classes XI and XII or admitting new students. HC also initiated contempt of court proceedings against the owner and management of Richmondd Global School for flouting its earlier undertaking given to the court in this regard.

Justice Jyoti Singh ordered the management to deposit Rs 75 lakh with the court registry as the money was charged from hundreds of students in these classes who, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) found, never turned up to attend classes but were enrolled only on paper. CBSE had carried out a surprise inspection, suspecting the students were taking coaching classes but paid the school to remain eligible to sit for the Class XII examination and become eligible for quotas in Delhi's engineering and medical colleges.


Justice Singh, while penalising the school, allowed 128 students out of 1,300 enrolled in classes XI and XII to be transferred to a nearby CBSE-affiliated school, and asked the board to open its online portal so they could apply for examination registration.

"A team of CBSE officials shall visit the school on Dec 26 at 2.30pm, inspect the records and verify the admissions as also the attendance of 128 students studying in Class XII. The school shall issue transfer certificates to the students within one week. On receipt of the certificates, they shall join James Convent Senior Secondary School, Nihal Vihar," HC directed, adding the students will pay the three months' quarter fee as also examination fee/late fee, as applicable.

Appreciating the role of CBSE standing counsel M A Niyazi in facilitating the transfer, HC noted: "CBSE has permitted 128 students… as an exceptional measure, looking at the extraordinary circumstances, and neither this concession nor the present order will be treated as a precedent for students currently studying Class XI in the school nor in any other case."

HC ordered school chairman Nidhi Gupta and manager Rishabh Gupta to file separate affidavits confirming no further students are being admitted. It said this "information shall be disseminated amongst the students of classes X and XI and also put up on the notice board at a prominent place so that these children are made aware that they will not be promoted to classes XI and XII in the next academic session".

The court was hearing petitions by the school and some of its students against CBSE's decision to withdraw affiliation.

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