6. Chapter IV of the RTE Act sets out the responsibilities of schools and teachers thereunder. Section 12 demarcates the “extent of schools responsibility for free and compulsory education”. For this purpose, schools have been divided into different categories, by the various clauses of Section 2(n), which applies to every recognised school imparting elementary education. Schools established, owned or controlled by the appropriate Government – in the case of Delhi, the GNCTD – or a local authority are covered by sub- clause (i), aided schools (with which we are not concerned) are covered by sub- clause (ii), Kendriya Vidyalaya, Navodaya Vidyalayas, and other such schools (with which, too, we are not concerned) are covered by subclause (iii) and unaided schools, not proceeding any kind of aid or grant to meet its expenses from the appropriate Government or any local authority – in which category the Sovereign School (Respondent 2) falls – are covered by sub- clause (iv). Section 12(1)(c) requires every school under Section 2(n)(iii) and (iv) to admit, in Class I, to the extent of at least 25% of the strength of the class, EWS/DG children in the neighbourhood, and to provide free and compulsory elementary education till completion. The constitutional validity of Section 12(1)(c), except to the extent it applies to minority schools, stands upheld by the Supreme Court in Pramati Educational & Cultural Trust v. U.O.I.3
