The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh challenging the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to shut down 105 primary schools, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih noted that the matter is pending before the Allahabad High Court. As a consequence, it agreed to Singh’s request to direct the High Court to hear the matter expeditiously.

In June, the Uttar Pradesh government had ordered the closure of the schools after finding that they had either zero or very few students. The state government had said that they would be “paired” with other institutions.

Singh had argued that the state government’s decision was “arbitrary, unconstitutional and legally impermissible”.

He added that it would hurt access to education for many children in the state.

Singh also said that the order violated children’s right to education under Article 21A of the Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.

The MP told the court that the Right to Education Rules require that a primary school be established within one kilometre of every habitation with at least 300 residents.

The Uttar Pradesh government has defended the move as part of a policy restructuring and alignment with the National Education Policy 2020. It has argued that sustaining schools with negligible student strength is inefficient, the Hindustan Times reported.

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