The Supreme Court today upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which mandates 25 per cent free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country. The apex court clarified that its judgement will come into force from today and, hence, it will not apply to admissions granted after the enactment of the legislation. In other words, the apex court said the judgement will only have a prospective affect and not retrospective affect.

By a majority view, a three-judge bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar said the act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools. Upholding the provisions of the law, the apex court said the impugned act should be construed as child specific.