The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected the Aam Aadmi Party government’s plea against an interim order staying the nursery admission norms based on neighbourhood criterion, PTI reported. Refusing to interfere with the verdict, the bench directed the “single judge [hearing the case] to decide on the petitions as expeditiously as possible”.

On February 14, a single judge had stayed the Delhi government’s new nursery admissions rule that 298 institutes could only take in students who live close by, prioritising children living within one km of these schools. AAP government had appealed against the interim order.

Justice Manmohan had said that the notice was “arbitrary, unreasonable and against the public interest”. “A student’s educational fate can’t be relegated to only his/her position on a map,” he had said. The judge had also noted that “public interest cannot be confined to 298 schools”. “Primary cause of nursery admission chaos is the lack of good schools in the capital,” the judge had said.

The Delhi government had said that the order was “against the law”. The Arvind Kejriwal government believed that in the absence of such a norm, schools could accept admission in an arbitrary manner and “justify charging exorbitant fees”.

A new set of guidelines were approved by Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal on January 7, 2017, which stated that applicants living around a school should be given priority.