Delhi High Court today took serious note of children dying in freak accidents in schools and directed setting up of zone-wise special task forces for their inspection to avoid such incidents which have claimed the lives of two students in the recent past.
Terming as "unfortunate" the two incidents in which two children died in their schools here, a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal directed all schools to carry out periodical inspection of their buildings and premises and submit a quarterly report to the Directorate of Education (DoE).
The bench also said executive engineers of municipal corporations should visit the schools under their areas on a monthly basis and immediately take steps to ensure that the defects, if found, are rectified.
The court order came on a plea seeking judicial inquiry into the deaths of two children in Ryan International School in Vasant Kunj and a municipal school in Kapashera area and for disaster management assessment of all the schools here.
"All schools in Delhi including MCD, NDMC, government schools, private schools, government aided schools shall carry out periodical inspection of school buildings and premises and submit a quarterly report to the office of DoE, caretaking branch, GNCTD," the bench said in a bid to prevent any such incidents in future.
"DoE is directed to constitute a special task force, zone-wise, which will visit the schools under their respective zones on a monthly basis and submit their reports before DoE, caretaking branch, GNCTD," the bench said while disposing of the plea.
The PIL filed by Col (Retd) Devinder Sehrawat, MLA from Bijwasan constituency, had sought to fix responsibility on the erring authorities or school management, payment of Rs 50 lakh compensation to the families of deceased boys and to ensure safety of students in the schools.
Divyansh Kakrora, a six-year-old Class I student of Ryan International School in Vasant Kunj in South Delhi was killed after falling into a tank in his school on January 30.
In a similar incident on January 27, five-year-old Ankit died after falling into an open septic tank in an primary municipal school in Kapashera area of south Delhi.
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In its order, the court referred to action taken report filed by Delhi Police as per which various lapses, like no signages indicating the existence of a water tank and an unlocked water reservoir room, were noticed during the probe in the matter relating to Ryan International School.
The bench noted that as per the report, Principal of the school, class teacher, maintenance in-charge, gardener and pump operator were arrested for the alleged failure to ensure safety and security of the child and further probe was on.
Regarding the other incident, it noted that as per SDMC's action taken report, the principal of the primary school and Executive Engineer (maintenance), Najafgarh zone were suspended with immediate effect through a January 28 order.
It also referred to the police report which said the Principal of the SDMC school was arrested along with others.
"Having heard the counsel for both the parties and having taken note of the material placed on record, while leaving it open to the respondent No.2 (Police Commissioner) to proceed with the investigation and take appropriate action in accordance with law, we direct that all the concerned should ensure strict compliance of the directions that have already been issued by the respondent numbers 1 and 3 (authorities) to ensure safety of students in the premises of schools," the bench said.
