The Supreme Court on Monday (June 15, 2026) sought responses from the Centre and the Punjab government on a plea alleging failure to implement the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (2009 Act) in Punjab, particularly the mandate under Section 12(1)(c) requiring private unaided schools to reserve 25% of entry-level seats for children from weaker sections and disadvantaged groups.

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At the outset of the hearing, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice V. Mohana asked the petitioner, who runs an NGO and appeared at the court in person, whether he had conducted any survey to substantiate the allegations.

“Have you been able to identify some schools which are not implementing the Act?” the Bench asked.

K.S. Raju, the petitioner, submitted that the law remained unimplemented in Punjab for the past 15 years. He further contended that the State’s inaction was in clear breach of the Supreme Court’s 2012 judgment in ‘Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India’, which upheld the constitutional validity of the 2009 Act.

“A minimum of 50,000 students have to be admitted [under the RTE Act]. As per government statistics, nearly two lakh students are admitted every year at the entry level... This is a continuing grievance being agitated,” he said.

However, the Bench referred to an affidavit previously filed by the State government, which stated that over 476 students belonging to economically weaker sections had been admitted to private schools. The Chief Justice accordingly asked Mr. Raju to conduct a survey in at least one district to ascertain the number of private schools and how many of them had not complied with the provisions of the Act.

“...Conduct at least a one-district survey. Do it for some comparatively backward area. Find out how many private schools there are and how many have refused to implement the Act,” the Bench said.

When Mr. Raju submitted that he had filed an RTI application on the issue last year, the Bench remarked that the limitation with RTI responses was that authorities would answer only in accordance with the nature of the questions posed to them.

Accordingly, the Bench issued notice on the plea but asked the petitioner to undertake the survey in the meantime and place additional material before the court.

The petition seeks directions to the Centre to put in place a transparent mechanism for monitoring compliance with the Section 12 mandate in Punjab, including publicly accessible dashboards to track implementation.

Section 12(1)(c) requires private unaided schools to reserve at least 25% of entry-level seats for children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged groups and to provide them free and compulsory elementary education until its completion.

The plea also seeks directions for putting in place an implementation mechanism in Punjab to give effect to the provision. It calls for the publication of available seats, a notified admission schedule, a reimbursement framework for schools, and action against institutions that fail to comply with the law.