The Madras High Court on Thursday refused to issue a direction to the government to order closure of all schools in the State beginning from pre-nursery to high school until spread of COVID-19 was contained.
Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy made it clear that it was for the government and not the court to take a call on closing down all schools, especially when the petitioner had not pointed out even a single instance of anyone testing positive for COVID-19 in any school. “If this is allowed, then tomorrow, you may ask for closing down the High Court,” the Chief Justice said and disposed of the PIL petition, filed by advocate V.K. Rajavelu, with a direction to School Education Department to issue appropriate instructions to be followed by schools to ensure safety of children.
After taking note of submissions made by State Government Pleader V. Jayaprakash Narayanan that the government had already taken adequate precautionary measures, the judges said: “In the absence of any material (relating to COVID-19 having been reported in any school), such cavalier petition does not deserve to be entertained as a knee jerk action.”