High Court restrains state from closing any Govt School

Bench takes suo motu cognisance of news item, treats it as a public interest litigation

In a major setback to the administration, the J&K High Court today took suo-motu cognisance of the state’s decision to close Government Girls High School, City Chowk, for creating a parking lot and restrained it from closing any government school.
The High Court took notice of a news item regarding the closure of government school for creating a parking lot and treated it as public interest litigation (PIL) under the name of court on its own motion.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur after hearing Advocate General Jehangir Iqbal Ganai with Additional Advocate General Ravinder Gupta restrained the state from closing any government school functioning as on date. The government will have to seek permission from the court if it is decides to close any school for “valid reasons”.
The Division Bench observed that imparting education either by a state or a private institution could not be for profiteering.
The Bench further observed that it was constrained to pass an order prohibiting the respondents (state government) from closing Government Girls High School, City Chowk, as over 200 students and their parents had been protesting against the government decision, which has been taken in the middle of the academic session.
The court ordered that the school would continue to function from the same premises till further orders. It also noticed that the state government was contemplating to rationalise the 3,000 schools in the state on the ground of less number of students and more number of teachers working in the schools and asked the state government to carefully consider the closure of any school on these grounds.
Pertinently, the state administration had decided to demolish the government school in City Chowk for creating a parking lot in the area. The move has already snowballed into a big political controversy with the Opposition parties demanding immediate reversal of the decision. They argued that the decision to dismantle the school building in the middle of the academic session would adversely affect the studies of over 200 girl students.
The students, who were moved out of this government school to Dogra Hall school, have now been asked to move to another school in the city i.e. Central Basic School.