Bombay High Court Directs State to Make School Safety Compliance Public by Oct 9

On Tuesday, the Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government to make safety information of all schools in the state available to the public by Oct 9. A suo motu PIL was heard by a division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Sandesh D. Patil in Aug 2024 following the sexual assault of two minors at a Badlapur school.

The High Court had directed the state on Sept 19 to create a website within a week providing a checklist of all schools – government and private, aided and unaided, as well as anganwadis, ashram shalas, and observation homes – that have adhered to the government resolution (GR) of May 13. The GR included instructions such as the installation of mandatory CCTV cameras, the provision of complaint boxes, the verification of staff character and female attendants, as well as transportation safety measures.

The judges suggested a website with a checklist of all schools, since most schools, mainly government schools, did not have complaint boxes or CCTVs.

Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde stated that a link was created on September 24 on the state education department’s website. Following this, a communication was sent to all schools requesting them to upload information on the compliances completed as per the checklist in the GR. Shinde added that schools have started submitting the data, with around 40% of them having uploaded their information so far.

In response to the judges’ query about whether there would be public access, Shinde replied that access would be granted after schools upload the information. However, the judges stated that access should be open to the public within a week or 10 days, adding: “Let the schools continue to fill the data.” They also asked whether schools would have a provision to update the data. “We want data of every compliance. Parents can check. Schools may say they have the facility,” said Justice Mohite-Dere.

In their order, the judges noted Shinde’s statement that the data “will be made open to the public by Oct 9.” They added that they would like to see a demonstration of how it functions before hearing the matter on Oct 10.