School Safety Standards: Delhi High Court Issues Directions For Inspections By Child Safety Monitoring Committee

The Delhi High Court has issued a slew of directions to be followed by the court-appointed Child Safety Monitoring Committee during the course of its inspections of schools in the national capital, in respect of minimum standards of school safety.

A division bench of then Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma (now elevated to the Supreme Court) and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela ordered that no member will be allowed to inspect the schools independently and that the three member Committee as a whole headed by the Chairperson will inspect the schools.

“However, in exceptional circumstances, the Chairperson may permit any member of the Committee to inspect the schools independently, who shall report to the Chairperson the finding of such inspection in writing. The said report shall only be accepted if the same is approved by the Chairperson. Further, if the Chairperson is not satisfied with the report of the member, the Chairperson may re-inspect the School and prepare a fresh report accordingly,” the court said.

In September, the court had constituted the Committee to monitor the implementation of a 2017 circular issued by the Delhi Government in respect of minimum standards of school safety.

Dr. R.M. Sharma, Former Indian Legal Services Officer is the Chairperson of the Committee. The two members are Ranjana Prasad (Member of DCPCR) and Advocate Maini Brar.

While the Committee was granted six months’ time to file a report in relation to adherence to the minimum standards of school safety, the Chairperson moved an application seeking approval of guidelines or procedure to be adopted during the process.

The bench ordered that the inspection proceedings will be conducted by the Chairperson and the two members of the committee may make suggestions in writing which will be duly considered by the Chairperson, however, the decision of the Chairperson shall be final and binding.

It added that the two members will not interact with the head or the manager or any other authority of the school directly.

“Inspection of the classrooms, toilets, and other analogous areas of the school may be inspected by the Chairperson for the safety of the children which shall be photographed to make the inspection process fully transparent. The police verification of the guards and the staff shall be supplied by the management/HOS of the school, especially, those guards who are deputed outside the toilet of the female children to the Chairperson,” the court said.

It added that if the management fails to produce the police verification of the guards, the Chairperson may direct the school to suspend such guards till the time their police verification is conducted and produced before the Committee keeping in view the safety of the children.

“The management/HOS shall also ensure that breath analyzers tests of the bus drivers is conducted regularly before boarding of the buses by the bus drivers. In cases, where the school buses are not owned by the school authorities and are hired on contract basis, the contractor will ensure that the police verification is done and breath analyzers test are conducted of the bus drivers prior to boarding the buses,” the court directed.

The matter will now be heard on April 18, 2024.

The court had taken suo motu cognizance of an alleged sexual assault on a 3-year-old minor girl by a cleaner working in her school in city’s South Delhi area.

The suo motu PIL was registered on the basis of an article published in the Times of India on August 04 titled “3-year-old sexually assaulted by school cleaner in south Delhi.”

Title: COURT ON ITS OWN MOTION v. GOVERNMENT OF NCT OF DELHI

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 1106

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