Two public interest writ petitions have been filed in the Madras High Court for a direction to the authorities concerned to ensure the safety of children in schools.
When the PILs from advocate E Karthik Raja of Redhills and Nethaji Pokkuvarathu Employees Union PRO C Sadayan of Perambur came up for hearing on Friday, the first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam ordered notice to the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School in K K Nagar, returnable in two weeks.
The bench also permitted senior counsel Vijay Narayan to serve notice on the Standing Counsel for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
The petitioner was directed to produce all the materials— the school prospectus, admission procedure, fee structure and other documents. The bench also directed the cou-nsel to produce details of the fee charged by the school for swimming and other extra-curricular activities. The Government Pleader should inform whether the Fire Service Department had laid down norms for running the swimming classes.
Vijay Narayan and advocate R Y George Williams contended that the incident showed utter lack of care and attention by the school authorities. It was unfortunate that police had registered a case for a bailable offence under Sec 304A of the IPC (causing death by negligence), instead of 304(ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
In the case of Zion school in Selaiyur, in which a seven-year-old girl fell through a hole in the school bus and died on July 25 last, and in the Jeppiar case, in which 10 persons had been killed in an accident at his college stadium site on August 6, cases had been registered for an offence under 304(ii), the counsel pointed out.
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