From lottery draw to courtroom: A child’s fight for a school seat in Gurgaon

Rajpal Chauhan's four-year-old son Reyansh was granted a seat at The Shri Ram School Aravali under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota after a computerized lottery on April 29. As a resident of Begumpur Khatola, Gurgaon, Chauhan worked private odd jobs in Delhi following the closure of his small business during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the school denied admitting Reyansh because his home was more than 3 km from the school, not meeting the neighborhood criteria under Haryana’s Right to Education rules. The family sought legal action against the school.

The case reached a district court in Gurgaon, where Additional District Judge Dr Gagan Geet Kaur ordered the school to admit Reyansh within 15 days, questioning the manner in which EWS children were being denied seats after being allotted through the state’s system. The court described this rejection as a tactic to deprive children from weaker sections of society of education and prevent them from studying alongside the elite in private schools.

Rajpal initially approached the Civil Judge (Junior Division) for an interim mandatory injunction, but the plea was dismissed as it would grant the primary relief before the trial concluded. The family then moved to the district court, where advocate Jaljeet Thurana argued that the school rejected the boy based on its assessment of eligibility, despite the government having scrutinized and allotted the seat.

The court acknowledged a procedural lapse – the state’s admission application portal failed to restrict or filter school choices based on residential addresses.

The court also highlighted that among 45 students allotted seats under the RTE quota, only one had been admitted, despite rejection of 16 allotted candidates on distance grounds. The court emphasized that statutory mandates were being indirectly defeated when only one admission was granted out of 45 allotted seats. Additionally, a May 5, 2026 directive from the Directorate of Elementary Education, Haryana, criticized private unaided recognized schools for delaying or refusing admissions on grounds deemed untenable.