Judicial Intervention in Policymaking: The Uniqueness of Right to Education in India

Abstract

This paper underlines the importance of Right to Education (RTE) as a public policy in education and indicates at the unique way of policy-making in India. A Judge-made law known as the Unnikrishnan Judgement, 1993 initiated policy-making. Literature survey of work in Education demonstrates that the available information and body of research chiefly dwell on the theoretical aspect of Education and are broadly from educational, legal, sociological, philosophical and economics perspective. It does not consider policy implications and fails to highlight what kind of positive changes legislation can bring about in education. This paper attempts to fill this gap. Past policies in education, NPE 1968 and NPE 1986 are evaluated to find shortcomings at policy level. The RTE is briefly analysed and some policy options available using Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and best suited to education are suggested for effective policy-making.