New Delhi, Oct. 17: Delhi High Court today upheld new norms recommended for nursery admissions, paving the way for more transparency and a possible confrontation with schools.

Schools in the capital were directed to implement a points-based admission process, recommended by a committee headed by CBSE chairperson Ashok Ganguly.

Under the new norms, the closer an applicant lives to a school, the greater the chances of getting admission. On a 100-point scale, 20 points have been set aside for distance of residence from school.

Those who live within 3 km of a school get full 20 points. For every kilometre more, three points are deducted. If the distance is over 10 km, the score would be zero out of 20.

If parents are alumni of a school, another 20 points are added.

Twenty points have been allocated for “parents’ qualifications”, to be gathered through an informal interaction between them and the school authorities. A child with siblings in the same school is to score more under this head, the court ruled. But these 20 points come into play only as tie-breaker if two applicants score the same out of the remaining 80 points.

Interview of children is banned.

Ten points have been set aside for single parents, five for girl children and another five for disabled children. A disabled girl child would get 10 extra points.

The remaining 20 points have been left to the discretion of the school management, a decision that hasn’t gone down well with schools.

“Instead of focusing on points, it would have been better if the honourable court focused on ensuring that no donations are taken,” said Jayanti Rajan, the principal of Pinnacle School, one of the many who have been opposing attempts to set fixed guidelines for nursery admissions.

The court also ordered that all schools should hold their admissions at the same time from the next academic year.