Funds under Right to Education need not be linked to National Education Policy: Madras HC to Centre

Funds payable by the Union government to state governments under the Right to Education Act need not be linked to the implementation of the National Education Policy, the Madras High Court said on Tuesday, according to Live Law.

A bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan urged the Centre to release to Tamil Nadu the funds under the Right to Education Act.

“It is true that implementation of the Samagra Siksha Scheme is aligned to NEP 2020, but the obligation under RTE is independent by itself,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.

The Samagra Shiksha scheme, implemented in 2018, is the scheme through which the Union government provides support for elementary and secondary school education.

In April, the Union Education Ministry had told the Rajya Sabha that Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal received no funds under the central education scheme for 2024-’25.

Data shared in the Upper House by Minister of State for Education Jayant Choudhary showed that while Kerala was allocated Rs 328.90 crore, Tamil Nadu Rs 2,151.60 crore and West Bengal Rs 1,745.80 crore from the Centre for the current fiscal year under the scheme, no funds had been released to these states as of March 27.

The halt in funding to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal came against the backdrop of these states refusing to...

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