Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Wednesday issued notices to Maharashtra govt and other respondents on a petition challenging the state’s revised distance-based lottery system for admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act quota.A division bench comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode was hearing a PIL filed by social activists Ashish Fulzele, Aniket Kuttarmare and Vaibhav Kamble. The petition questions legality of the state govt’s April 6, 2026 order introducing a phased lottery system for admissions to the 25% reserved seats in private schools under the RTE Act. Payal Gaikwad, Bodhi Ramteke, Deepak Chatap, Sithara Sarangana, Hrishikesh Bhoyar and Vikrant Pandey appeared for the petitioners.According to the petition, students are now grouped on the basis of their residential distance from schools — 0 to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 5 km and beyond 5 km. The petitioners contended that such classification creates an unequal admission process and discriminates against eligible children living farther away from schools. The court directed the respondents to file their replies within four weeks.The petitioners argued that the revised system undermines the principle of equal opportunity by granting first preference to students residing within one kilometre of a school. They claimed that if all seats are filled in the initial phase, eligible students from distant areas may be denied admission solely because of the distance criterion.The plea further pointed out that the high court had earlier struck down a similar distance restriction in RTE admissions, observing that students from disadvantaged sections could not be denied access to schools located beyond one kilometre from their residence. Following that ruling, the state govt had withdrawn the mandatory distance condition, the petition stated.The petitioners have sought directions to implement a uniform lottery process for all eligible applicants irrespective of distance and to declare the phased distance-based admission system illegal and unconstitutional.
