New Delhi, Feb 7: At the outset of the hearing, Delhi High Court's Justice Manmohan said, "It is a race against time. We are running on a very tight schedule before which this matter has to be decided."

While hearing the petitions filed by parents and two school group against Delhi government's two controversial notification on nursery admissions, the Delhi High Court observed the case as 'a race against time'. The court's observation ascertains its connotation as the process for applying for nursery admission in schools here would end on February 14, mentioned PTI.

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The petitions filed in the Delhi High Court challenged the Delhi government's December 19, 2016, and January 7 notifications that made 298 private schools, built on Delhi Development Authority land, to accept nursery admission forms based only on the neighborhood or distance criteria.

During the hearing, the court asked the counsel appearing for one of the school bodies, "Their (government's) argument is that do not entertain the challenge regarding the land allotment letter. Can you bifurcate in the sense that if a challenge to the allotment letter is not undertaken by the court then can you challenge the criteria independently of the allotment."

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Responding to this, the counsel said that the issue can be bifurcated as because of the consequence of these new circulars, a new ground of discrimination between two classes of students has cropped up.

The school bodies that filed petition alleged Delhi government with "discrimination" towards the private school. They pointed out that the notifications carrying neighborhood criteria have been imposed upon 298 schools only, while it has not been made mandatory for the other 1,400 schools.

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"If the issue of children going to schools in around 1,400 schools is not a matter of concern for the government then why it is a concern for students of 298 schools. Why have only 298 schools been subjected to this kind of treatment? It is nothing but arbitrariness and discrimination," the lawyer said to PTI

He also argued that interest of these 298 schools has to be safeguarded and being the government, it should not discriminate between students. He further clarified that there is no definition of neighborhood criteria in the letter allocating land to the schools.

–prepared by Ashish Srivastava of NewsGram Twitter @PhulRetard