Overview

• The court agreed to examine a plea claiming private schools compel parents to buy costly private-publisher books, leading to the systemic exclusion of EWS students.
• According to the petition, private book sets cost about Rs 10,000–12,000 a year versus roughly Rs 700 for NCERT texts, while Delhi reimburses only Rs 5,000 for EWS admissions.
• RTI replies cited in the filing state NCERT has no mechanism to enforce its textbook mandate and CBSE lacks a statutory framework with penalties for non-compliance.
• The petitioner seeks directions to prioritize NCERT books, enforce RTE Section 12(1)(c), implement the School Bag Policy’s 10% body-weight cap, and adopt a Fixed Rate–Fixed Weight system when NCERT books are unavailable.
• The plea was filed by Jasmit Singh Sahni through advocates Satyam Singh Rajput and Amit Prasad, references a Madras High Court precedent, and describes a Rs 55,000 crore ‘parallel economy’ as the petitioner’s assertion.