The City Montessori School of Lucknow figures in the Guinness Book of World Records for largest enrollment of 55,000 in a school, although it is not one school but has 18 different branches spread throughout the city. Its founder Jagdish Gandhi has won the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education for promoting the universal values of education for peace and tolerance. He also preaches on TV channels. The school organises many national and international level events including an assembly of mostly retired judges from across the world to promote the idea of World Government. Its academic performance is good in classes X and XII Board examinations as it weeds out the weaker students at Class VIII stage and shifts them to other schools. CMS is an example of possibly every kind of violation of norms that are required to be fulfilled for running private schools.
By not admitting 18, 55 and 296 children belonging to disadvantaged groups and weaker sections in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 respectively under section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education Act 2009 for free education from classes I to VIII, Jagdish Gandhi has betrayed his anti-poor or anti-humanitarian character.
The Indira Nagar branch of CMS doesn’t have the required No Objection Certificate from Education Department and Certificate of Land from Revenue Department to obtain affiliation with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations but has still somehow managed to obtain the ICSE affiliation. Legal notice has been served on CISCE.
This branch has been built without approval of design of building, without permission on a residential land, a demolition order against which is pending for the last 21 years. One of the three plots on which the school is run belongs to R.B. Pathak, a retired IAS officer, whose house was demolished to build a four storey school building without his permission. The school claimed 600 as its student strength while obtaining the Fire Department NOC, claims 1,100 students on its website, and 1,731 in the court of law when obtaining stay against demolition.
Only a few of its 18 branches have NOC from the Fire Department, a mandatory requirement; the remaining functioning without it.
The Gomti Nagar Extension branch of CMS, its latest, also has a case against illegal construction pending in Lucknow Development Authority.
The Jopling Road branch runs from a property belonging to the Bisen family. In 1982, late VNS Singh Bisen gave the building on a monthly rent to CMS. Before his demise in 1992, he had already initiated a legal case for eviction of CMS after serving a notice to it terminating the rental agreement. The eldest son of the family Dr. Sunil Bisen, a neurosurgeon, is still fighting the legal battle in the District Court. In 2015, the High Court issued a directive for early disposal of the case within a year and half. It is more than a year since that period expired. A court appointed official has declared the building unsafe but District Magistrate’s office gave permission to Jagdish Gandhi last year to carry out repairs without informing Dr. Bisen. In 1982 monthly fees at school was Rs 50. Today it has increased by a hundred times. In the same time period, the rent has increased from Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,200, which is deposited in court now. The Bisen family is deprived of its property as well as an appropriate rent for over three decades now. It is unclear on what kind of land certificate the Basic Education Officer has accorded recognition to this branch?
The most outrageous revelation is from the Chowk branch of CMS. Its Principal for close to 35 years, Sadhna Choodamani, who adopted her husband’s surname Bedi after marriage, has issued receipts on the letterhead of CMS of large amounts against loans from parents and former students, taken by school on interest rates upward of 12%. Ritesh Agarwal says his father had been giving loan to the school since 1992–93 when he studied in class II at this branch. Total deposits of his family to date are Rs 61 lakh. Rajesh Agarwal’s family has given loans totalling to Rs 25 lakh, Vibhor Baijal’s family Rs 9 lakh and N.C. Rastogi Rs 7 lakh. Including the teachers who can’t speak out for fear of losing their jobs, the total amount collected by the school is estimated to be in the range of Rs 25–40 crore. Sadhna Bedi was expelled from the school on June 29, 2017 on charges of financial bungling, and now Jagdish Gandhi says that since Bedi took away all the money, people should file a case against her. The school submitted a complaint to Director General of Police but never registered a FIR against Sadhna Bedi for misuse of its letterhead. People who are familiar with the functioning of CMS know that even small decisions like giving concession in fees to a student or deciding which caterer will serve tea or meals in any programme is taken by Jagdish Gandhi himself. How is it possible that receipts of lakhs of rupees were being issued by the Principal on official letterhead without his knowledge? Jagdish Gandhi is probably part of the scam but has schemed to make Sadhna Bedi a scapegoat. He has most likely struck a deal with Sadhna and her husband Amarjot Singh Bedi, Principal of prestigious Colvin Taluqdars’ College of Lucknow, that in exchange for Sadhna accepting the blame he’ll provide legal help to her. But according to the Contract Act Law, Jagdish Gandhi bears all the responsibility for the entire money involved in this scam, and CMS will have to repay all the lenders.
CMS was running a bank from its Chowk branch premises without any permission from the RBI. It’ll also attract charge of income tax violation.
It appears that Jagdish Gandhi has mastered the art of encroaching upon land belonging to others, building illegally without permission or various NOCs, obtaining dubious recognition/affiliation and running schools with a mercenary objective. It is only a matter of conjecture as to what kind of values children would be imbibing from this school?
The tragedy is that if and when action is finally taken against the illegal operations of CMS, which is of course extremely difficult as Jagdish Gandhi is known to extend favours to influential people—officials, people’s representatives, judges and journalists—by offering concession in fees to their children or hiring ladies in their families as teachers, and the school if forced to shut down, it would jeopardise the future of thousands of students.
e-mail: ashaashram@yahoo.com
