Funds Payable By Centre To States Under RTE Act Need Not Be Linked To NEP Implementation : Madras High Court

Observing that the funds payable by the Central Government to the States under the Right to Education Act need not be linked to the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), the Madras High Court urged the Centre to consider releasing the Samagra Shiksha Scheme funds payable to the Tamil Nadu government.

The bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayanan was disposing of a petition seeking directions to the State to initiate the admission process under the Right to Education Act, 2009 for the academic year 2025-2026 immediately. The bench had reserved the orders in the petition during its vacation sitting. 

During the hearing of the pleas, the State Government had informed the court that the Centre had not been releasing funds since 2021 due to political animosity. As per the scheme, the funds are shared by the Centre is obligated to pay 60% of the share and the State is obligated to pay the remaining 40%. When a query was raised by the bench on why the Centre had been withholding funds, ASG ARL Sundaresan informed the court that the funds under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan have not been released for the State of Tamil Nadu as the State has not signed a Memorandum of Understanding for implementing the National Education Policy.

While disposing of the petitions, the bench has now urged the Centre to delink the RTE component from the Samagra Shiksha Scheme and release the funds payable to the State Government. The bench said that as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act, the central and state governments had concurrent responsibility for providing funds. The court thus opined that the funds payable to the state governments representing the central government's share towards discharging the RTE obligations need not be linked to NEP 2020.

"It is true that implementation of the Samagra Siksha Scheme is aligned to NEP 2020, but then obligation under RTE is independent by itself. Section 7 of the Act states the central government and the state government will have concurrent responsibility for providing funds for carrying out provisions of the Act. Section 7(3) mandates that the central government shall provide to the state government as grants-in-aid of revenues, such percentage of expenditure referred to in sub-section (2) as it may determine, from time to time, in consultation with the State Governments. Therefore, funds payable to the state governments representing the central government share towards discharging the RTE obligations need not be linked to NEP 2020," the court said. 

The court also noted that since the State Government has filed a suit in the Supreme Court against the withholding of funds, it could not issue any binding directions. The court thus urged the central government to consider delinking the RTE component. 

With respect to the relief sought for in the plea, the court directed the State Government to make disbursements adhering to the timelines laid down in the statute. The court added that the State Government had an obligation to reimburse private unaided schools providing admission under the scheme of the Act and non-receiving of funds from teh central government could not be used as a ground to wriggle out of the statutory obligation. 

Detailed order copy awaited. 

Case Title: V Easwaran v. Government of Tamil Nadu

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 194

Case No: WP 18427 of 2025