Chennai: Pointing out that the authorities have taken various steps with regard to the structural conditions of schools and colleges, the Madras high court closed a PIL. The petitioners, in the PIL, had sought a direction to the authorities to inspect the schools and colleges buildings along with an environmental expert in order to study the fitness and the strength of the schools and colleges buildings for providing a health and fearless environment for the children to study.
Closing the petition filed by V Anbazhagan as it is based on surmises and
conjectures, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh said, "The petitioner, a journalist by profession, seeks to raise the issue of the structural conditions of the schools and colleges post rains. On perusal of the petition and the documents, we find that there is no specific material really placed before us to show how the structural conditions of the buildings have been affected. In fact, the petitioner is not even qualified to say so while seeking direction from this court to order inspection of the school and college buildings along with the environmental experts in order to study the fitness and the strength of the buildings".
The counter affidavit filed by the Department of School Education
has averred that it had already issued instructions well in advance to all the Chief Educational Officers and the District Educational Officers regarding the precautionary measures to be taken during monsoon. In view of the heavy rainfall since the schools and colleges were closed, further instructions were issued for providing necessary assistance to meet the exigency of the situation, the bench added.
