The vacation court division bench comprising Justice C V Karthikeyan and Justice Krishnan Ramasamy-before whom the plea came up for hearing on Wednesday-sought the government to furnish its reply and posted the case for further hearing to June.

S Gopi Krishnan, a practicing advocate, on citing an incident in Coimbatore-wherein a school van driver and cleaner were arrested for allegedly assaulting a four-year-old girl in a bus near Mettupalayam, and another incident at Greater Noida where a three-year-old girl student of a private school was also sexually assaulted in the school bus, submitted that it was just not enough that all school buses were certified as mechanically fit.

With technology advancing so much nowadays that CCTV cameras attached to Global Positioning System (GPS) can be installed in all the buses so that the individual schools can monitor the movement of their buses, the concerned institution can also create a website to monitor bus movement, enabling the parent, too, to keep a tab on the school bus. This will ensure the safety of school-going children, the petitioner said.

Also noting that the concept of installing CCTV camera with GPS too can help police in cases of any misadventure by anyone travelling in the bus, the petitioner further submitted that a plea in this regard was sent to the government on April 3 and it is necessary that a direction is issued to make such installation of CCTV cameras with GPS mandatory in school vehicles and ensure that such a process comes into vogue from the beginning of this academic year.