The Supreme Court today upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which mandates 25 per cent free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country. The apex court clarified that its judgement will come into force from today but will only have a prospective affect and not retrospective affect.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar said by a majority view that the act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools. Upholding the provisions of the law, the apex court said the impugned act should be construed as child specific.
The bench had reserved its verdict on August 3, last year on a batch of petitions by private unaided institutions which had contended that the Act violates the rights of private educational institutions under Article 19(1)(g) which provided autonomy to private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference.