India, July 3 -- The Delhi High Court has directed GD Goenka School to re-admit an eight-year-old autistic girl in Class 1, ruling that educational institutions are duty-bound to accommodate children with special needs under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act.

Justice Vikas Mahajan in a ruling delivered on Tuesday, criticised the school's failure to provide adequate support, observing that its actions amounted to a denial of the child's statutory right to inclusive education.

The court said that inclusive education under the Act is not a symbolic ideal, but a legally enforceable right.

"No child can be deprived merely due to the institutional unwillingness to adapt. It needs no emphasis that 'inclusive education' is not merely...