Nagpur: Cracking down on the city schools which repeatedly failed to respond to its directives, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday, issued a bailable warrant of Rs25,000 against about 90 of them. Those would be issued to school principals and management committee's chairperson, who were asked to reply within two weeks. Either or both these persons had to submit Rs25,000, if they failed to respond before the deadline.
About 126 schools were added as respondents by the court in a suo Motu PIL on the tragic death of nine-year-old Virat Zade, a student of Central India Public School, on January 9, 2011. All of them failed to secure fitness certificates of those vehicles, thus putting several lives under risk, as pointed out by amicus curiae Firdos Mirza. These schools were actually made party in 2012 when PIL was filed, but only Virat's school responded, while others kept delaying.
Peeved with poor response from the schools, the court had slapped Rs5,000 fine on 125 of them during one of the hearings. Subsequently, over 30 of them responded by filing their replies through their respective counsels, that too after repeated directives.
The crackdown came after government informed court that majority of schools failed to secure their fitness certificates of its school buses, thus risking lives of thousands of innocent children, who commute through them.
During last hearing, the court had directed to prepare a detailed chart of all such erring schools so that it could take appropriate action on them. Accordingly, it was submitted by him. It was then realized that hardly about 30 had filed replies.
A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Swapna Joshi had asked court registrar to verify first on how many schools had actually responded to the court's notices, before issuing a bailable warrant.
Virat was crushed under the school bus in Hudkeshwar while returning from school. He went under the bus to collect his tiffin box which felled while descending from the vehicle. The incident created a huge uproar among the citizens, especially the parents.
Earlier, Mirza pointed out that out of 25,369 school buses in Maharashtra, only 13,440 conducted fitness test of RTO, as per court's orders. Still, over 12,000 of them are plying on roads, including in city, risking lives of children. The schools were told to constitute 'school bus committees' which again was not complied with.
The amicus also pointed out that director of education had issued a circular asking the school bus owners to have CCTV cameras and women conductors inside and also for police verification of drivers and conductors. But hardly, any school had complied with the government directives.
About 126 schools were added as respondents by the court in a suo Motu PIL on the tragic death of nine-year-old Virat Zade, a student of Central India Public School, on January 9, 2011. All of them failed to secure fitness certificates of those vehicles, thus putting several lives under risk, as pointed out by amicus curiae Firdos Mirza. These schools were actually made party in 2012 when PIL was filed, but only Virat's school responded, while others kept delaying.
Peeved with poor response from the schools, the court had slapped Rs5,000 fine on 125 of them during one of the hearings. Subsequently, over 30 of them responded by filing their replies through their respective counsels, that too after repeated directives.
The crackdown came after government informed court that majority of schools failed to secure their fitness certificates of its school buses, thus risking lives of thousands of innocent children, who commute through them.
During last hearing, the court had directed to prepare a detailed chart of all such erring schools so that it could take appropriate action on them. Accordingly, it was submitted by him. It was then realized that hardly about 30 had filed replies.
A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Swapna Joshi had asked court registrar to verify first on how many schools had actually responded to the court's notices, before issuing a bailable warrant.
Virat was crushed under the school bus in Hudkeshwar while returning from school. He went under the bus to collect his tiffin box which felled while descending from the vehicle. The incident created a huge uproar among the citizens, especially the parents.
Earlier, Mirza pointed out that out of 25,369 school buses in Maharashtra, only 13,440 conducted fitness test of RTO, as per court's orders. Still, over 12,000 of them are plying on roads, including in city, risking lives of children. The schools were told to constitute 'school bus committees' which again was not complied with.
The amicus also pointed out that director of education had issued a circular asking the school bus owners to have CCTV cameras and women conductors inside and also for police verification of drivers and conductors. But hardly, any school had complied with the government directives.
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