In a huge relief to lakhs of students across Vidarbha, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the state education department to reopen schools in the region from June 30.
A division bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode scrapped the department's earlier circulars that first set June 15 as the reopening day, and after the matter came up for hearing in HC, pushed it to June 22. The court came down hard on the education department warning that any future deviation from this directive would invite contempt of court proceedings against the concerned official, even as it termed the director of education's past action 'contemptuous' but refrained from initiating contempt proceedings.
The high court bench said: 'We make it clear that in future, if the director of education or any other officer of the state issues any circular or takes any action contrary to the judgment referred to herein, this court may be constrained to initiate appropriate proceedings under Contempt of Courts Act against the concerned officer.'
The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Maharashtra Rajya Prathamik Shikshan Samiti, through its president Vijay D Kombey and Liladhar Thakre who head the Nagpur unit, challenging the March 28 circular that fixed June 15 as the reopening date for schools across Maharashtra.
Advocate BG Kulkarni, who appeared for the petitioners, said it was the state which had in past issued a government resolution (GR) clearly mentioning that schools in Vidarbha have a different reopening date due to adverse weather conditions. Additional government pleader DP Thakre, however, said the change in date was merely to bring uniformity in academic schedule.
The matter had come up for hearing on Tuesday, when the bench questioned the state on why June 15 was set as reopening date for Vidarbha, despite the issue being concluded by an HC ruling of 2007. Just before the Wednesday hearing, the state government late Tuesday evening issued a notification pushing the date to June 22.
But on Wednesday, the bench said this June 9 circular too was in contravention of the directions issued by a coordinate bench in the Citizen Forum Maharashtra versus State of Maharashtra case of June 8, 2007, which held that imposing a uniform statewide reopening date was arbitrary given Vidarbha's June temperatures and its impact on students' health. The Supreme Court had dismissed the state's Special Leave to Appeal in 2007 against that ruling, the bench noted.
The bench, quoting the 2007 verdict in full agreement, held that the government's failure to collect the temperature duration data and to consider representations from Vidarbha 'is a conduct which is arbitrary and not befitting a government of people, for the people and by the people.' The bench also endorsed the 2007 finding that 'government action lacks fairness which plays the role of Article 14 of the Constitution.'
The bench said the director of education, 'without any apparent authority', had issued the impugned circular overriding the GR of April 20, 2023, which mandated school reopening in Vidarbha only from June 30 or the next working day in case of a holiday. The state has now been directed to act strictly in accordance with that GR.
