The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday ordered to maintain the status quo on the merger of schools in the Sitapur district till the next hearing on September 1.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhasali and Justice Jaspreet Singh heard the case. Petitioner’s advocate Gaurav Mehrotra said the bench ordered to maintain the status quo on the merger of schools in Sitapur till the next hearing.
The state government clarified in the court that pairing of schools less than 1 km away will not be done, and schools that have more than 50 students will also be kept out of the merger process.
The division bench directed the government to bring the order passed in this regard on record.
The matter initially went to the single bench of the High Court, but the petitioners did not get any relief from there on July 7. After this, a petition was filed in the double bench.
The petitioners said that due to the merger, children will have to go to school 3-5 km away, which will affect their studies and safety. According to the RTE Act, it is mandatory to have a school within a fixed distance for children aged 6-14 years. The government hastily issued the order without survey and counseling.
The UP Basic Education Department had issued an order on June 16, 2025, in which thousands of schools in UP were directed to be merged with nearby upper primary or composite schools on the basis of the number of children. The government had argued that this would improve the quality of education and make better use of resources.
On July 1, around 51 children, including Sitapur student Krishna Kumari, challenged the government order in the High Court. Another petition was also filed on July 2. The petitioners had said that this order violates the Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE Act). The argument took place on the bench of Justice Pankaj Bhatia on July 3 and 4. After hearing the arguments of both the parties on July 4, Justice Pankaj Bhatia reserved the decision.
On July 7, the single bench had given the verdict in favor of the government, and it said that this decision is in the interest of children.
On July 22, the court completed the hearing on all three petitions. On July 24, the court had banned the school merger in Sitapur and ordered to maintain the status quo.