The Court of Appeal has issued a writ of Mandamus directing the Principal of Kandy Girls High School to admit a student to Grade 1 based on her religion.
A two-judge bench of the Court of Appeal comprising Justice Sobhitha Rajakaruna and Justice Dhammika Ganepola also issued a writ of certiorari quashing the letter issued by the Principal by which the child was denied entry to the Girls High School, Kandy.
Justice Sobhitha Rajakaruna observed that the Principal of the Girls High School has acted in violation of clause 4.2 of circular No. 24/2018 regarding allocating seats for other Christian sects other than the Christian Methodist sect.
Anton Balasundaram, a resident of Gelioya, filed this writ petition on behalf of his daughter, a minor. The father of the child submitted an application to the Kandy Girls High School for the admission of his daughter to Grade 1 class of the school in 2019 to study in Tamil medium.
. He has applied to the ‘close proximity’ category in terms of circular No. 24/2018 issued by the Ministry of Education on 31.05.2018.
The father of the child had submitted the said application under the “close proximity” category and also on a “Christianity” basis.
He claims that his daughter was refused admission to Grade 1 since the first respondent Principal M. Abeygunasekara neglected her authority by violating circular No. 24/20182 issued by the Ministry of Education. The applicant father alleges that his daughter scored only 33.8 marks should be admitted to the school based on the availability of instructions of Christianity, under clause 4.2 of the circular, despite the marks received based on the category (‘close proximity to school’) under which category the application for admission was made.
