Five persons were arrested in connection with the tragedy and they have been released on bail.
When two PILs, seeking a comprehensive review of the safety measures being taken in schools came up, the First Bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam observed that parents were equally responsible for such incidents.
The Chief Justice, in his oral observations, said some parents rushed to schools without verifying the claims made in advertisements.
The Bench directed a petitioner E Karthik Raja and an advocate to produce all materials such as prospectus, admission procedure and fee structure of the school.
The Judges also told senior counsel Vijay Narayan, appearing for the petitioner, to produce details of the fee charged by the school for swimming and other extra-curricular activites, while government pleader S Venkatesh was directed to inform the court as to whether fire service department had laid down norms for running the school swimming pool.
Earlier, Vijay Narayan said the school conducted swimming classes throughout the day and every student was compulsorily made to subscribe for the classes. The pool could accommodate a maximum of 15 students at a time.
Claiming that students were made to swim minutes after breakfast and lunch, he said, "if they put 30 boys into the pool under the supervision of one instructor, such incidents are bound to happen."
Instead of charging school authorities and others with non-bailable offences for negligence, police had only invoked IPC Section 304-A (causing death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide), a bailable offence, he said.
Submitting a status report by an ACP on the incident, the government pleader said the arrested had been released on bail at the time of remand itself.
