AHMEDABAD: The district education officer (DEO) on Tuesday ordered the closure of Delhi Public School (DPS) East, Hirapur, after receiving complaints that the school was illegally admitting students for the academic year 2021-22.
A team of officials visited the school on Tuesday to investigate the matter and ordered its immediate shutdown as the school did not have the no-objection certificate (NOC) from the state education department.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to which it was seeking affiliation had set March 31 deadline to produce the Gujarat government’s NoC.
Last month, the school authorities had approached the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) for the nod for admitting students of secondary and higher secondary classes from June 21. But their application for affiliation and recognition to start a non-grant-in-aid school was rejected.
The operations of DPS East were taken over by the state government in December 2019. The takeover happened because the school had landed in a controversy in connection with an ashram run by the self-styled godman Nithyananda, located on the school premises.
The directorate of primary education (DPE), Gujarat government, had in October last year slapped a fine of Rs 50 lakh on DPS East and ordered the school to shut down after the end of the academic year 2020-21.
The school was functioning without a proper no-objection certificate from the state government between 2008 and 2011, according to the DPE.
The school authorities had allegedly forged NoC documents of the state government to get affiliation from the CBSE. The CBSE had in 2019 decided to cancel the affiliation. However, the government intervened and decided to take over the operations of the school till March 31 so that students did not suffer in the middle of their academic year.
