Death of class III student: HC awards Rs 5 L compensation

Madras High Court has awarded compensation of Rs five lakhs to the family of a class III student who drowned in a pond like crater outside a government middle school during school hours in March, 2009.
Holding Secretaries of School Education and Revenue departments vicariously liable for the negligence, Justice M Venugopal ordered the authorities to pay Rs five lakh compensation within two months to the eight-year old boy's father who had moved the court.
V Prasanth and Vignesh, both class III students and aged eight, had gone outside the school campus to answer nature's call on March 25, 2009 and never returned.

The judge noted that the school did not have a compound wall. Secondly, there was a 22-ft pond-like crater near the school premises, created by illegal sand mining. Thirdly, a science exhibition at the school had kept all teachers busy and no class teacher was available to monitor the boys.
That they had gone missing was found only in the evening when they did not return home. After a search their bodies were recovered in embracing position.
As the government gave only Rs 50,000 as compensation after representations, Prasanth's father K Veeraraghavan filed the present petition.

Justice M Venugopal, pointing out that the authorities had punished the school headmaster Chandrasekaran and class teacher Pushpalatha for negligence by first suspending them from service and then withholding their increment, said the secretaries are vicariously liable for the negligent act of their subordinates.

The judge also pointed out that in such matters the damages should neither be like a bonanza nor very meagre.
During arguments, authorities resisted compensation claims and negligence accusations, saying the incident occurred outside the school campus and after the school hours.
Counsel for the boy's father, however, said it was a case of gross negligence and wrongful act on the part of the school administration, as the school was holding the science exhibition without permission and the class teacher was absent.
The school did not have compound wall and toilet facilities, he said, adding that the facilities would have prevented such a tragedy.