MUMBAI: Holding that the neighbourhood requirement under the Right to Education (RTE) Act is an essential eligibility condition and not “an empty formality,” the Bombay High Court on Friday upheld the rejection of a Pune boy’s admission under the 25% RTE quota over discrepancies in his residential address.HC: Residence proof key for RTE quota admissionsA division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad observed on Friday that the residential requirement “is not an empty formality” and cannot be diluted without satisfactory proof.The petition was filed by Sandeep Sathe after his son was denied admission to Podar International School in Wagholi under the RTE quota.“Diluting or overlooking such a requirement in the absence of satisfactory proof would not only defeat the object of the statutory scheme, but may result in denying admission to another needy child who genuinely satisfies the ‘neighbourhood’ conditions,” the bench added and dismissed the petition filed by Sathe.Sathe had claimed that his family had been living in a rented apartment in Kharadi since August 2025, around 950 metres from the school, making his son eligible for admission under the neighbourhood criterion. He challenged the rejection of his online application, contending that it was based on an erroneous discrepancy in the address generated through Google Maps.Pursuant to the court’s directions, education authorities inspected the address and submitted a report. Additional Government Pleader Kedar Dighe informed the court that the premises mentioned in the application was a small room above a roadside eatery run by the petitioner’s mother and could not be treated as the family’s residence.The bench also noted that the petitioner’s Aadhaar card and voter identity card carried addresses different from the one mentioned in the online application.Finding no evidence that the Kharadi premises was the family’s ordinary residence, the court upheld the decision of the education authorities to reject the RTE admission application.