Schools in UP left uninspected for 14 years, Lucknow HC hits out, demands SC compliance

Lucknow: Hearing a case related to the safety of school children, the Lucknow bench of the High Court on Friday found that the schools in the state have not been inspected for the last 14 years despite guidelines given by the Supreme Court in 2009. Expressing displeasure over this, the court summoned the 'minutes of meetings' of the National Disaster Management Authority for the last two years. The court said if we find that the disaster authority has not done anything in this regard despite the apex court's order then appropriate orders will be passed. The case will be next heard on November 11. This order has been passed by a division bench of Justice Alok Mathur and Justice Brijraj Singh while hearing a PIL filed by Gomti River Bank residents in 2020. In the said petition, the issue of schools running in the residential areas of the city has been specifically raised. During the hearing, the court has emphasized on implementing the guidelines given by the apex court in 2009 in the Avinash Mehrotra case.

In compliance with the order passed in the last hearing, the state government informed that there are a total of about one lakh 41 thousand schools in the state which will take about eight months to inspect. The court was also informed that an action plan has been prepared to inspect various schools in the state in which it is proposed to include trained people of civil engineering, fire fighting, road transport and basic education officer and district school inspector, the job of these experts will be to evaluate the structural safety and security measures of the schools. On this, the court said that videography of every inspection will also have to be done. Amicus curiae will hold talks with the schools that do not allow pick-drop. During the previous hearing of this case, the court had ordered the school institutions around Hazratganj and Raj Bhavan to provide pick-drop facility to the children up to class 5 from within the school premises. DCP (traffic) Prabal Pratap Singh, who was present during the hearing, told the court that only three schools have followed this order.

On this, the court has given the responsibility to senior advocate JN Mathur, who has been appointed as amicus curiae in the case, to talk to the rest of the school management.