Devansh was found dead in school on January 31, 2016Over three years after the body of six-year-old Devansh Meena was recovered from a water tank in Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj, his parents Friday moved the Delhi High Court for compensation of Rs 10 crore on the ground of alleged gross negligence by the institution and local authorities. The issue came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao, who sought the stand of the school and its administration, including the chairman and the principal.
The bench also directed the DDA, Delhi government’s Directorate of Education, Delhi Jal Board and South Delhi Municipal Corporation to file replies to the plea by the boy’s father, Ramhet Meena, by July 19.
The father had appealed against a single judge’s February 13 order, which had said the court does not consider it apt to examine the claim. Appealing against the single judge’s order, advocate Ashok Aggarwal said the single judge in a “hasty manner came to the conclusion that the petition is not a case of res ipsa loquitur, and had not considered the writ petition to be a fit case to be adjudicated by him”.
As per legal maxim, res ipsa loquitur means “the thing speaks for itself” — a doctrine of law that one is presumed to be negligent if he/she/it had exclusive control of whatever caused the injury, even though there is no specific evidence of an act of negligence.
Following the incident, the parents had filed a complaint, and an FIR had been lodged in the boy’s death under various IPC sections, including causing death due to negligence. The matter is pending trial.
The Class I student at Ryan, Devansh, had gone missing from class on January 30, 2016. Hours later, an electrician found his body in a water tank inside the school.
