Centre told to follow suggestions on safety guidelines for schools

The demand for framing safety guidelines for schools got a boost on Tuesday as the Supreme Court directed Centre to consider various suggestions made in this regard by parents and lawyers and take a decision in three months.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by one Barun Chandra Thakur, father of a seven-year old boy stabbed to death in a Gurgaon private school. Following his petition, several lawyers approached the Court with suggestions on the possible safety guidelines to be put in place.

Dealing with the bunch of petitions, a bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and RF Nariman said, “We are not experts.” The bench left it to the Centre to take a call on the issue within a fixed time. “We direct Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) to look into the prayers in the PILs and consider taking a decision in three months. The decision taken shall be for both government as well as private schools,” the bench said in its order.

Earlier, the apex court had sought compilation of norms formulated by the Centre and states for its consideration. It had asked all the States and union territories to file their responses on the PILs filed by father of the deceased child, some lawyers and organisations. Three States — Haryana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh — have so far responded in the case.

The plea filed by two women lawyers sought framing of “non-negotiable” child safety conditions and implementation of existing guidelines to protect school-going children from offences like sexual abuse and murder across the country. The plea had also sought cancellation of licences and forfeiture of State grants of erring schools.

The petition made all State Governments and union territories as parties and sought proper implementation of the existing guidelines of authorities including the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on prevention of child abuse in schools. Referring to the guidelines, it said every school is required to have a “child protection policy which should be understood, explained and signed by all employees or recruits”.