Officials directed to submit report on unrecognised schools in State

Observing that officials responsible for submitting incomplete status report will be asked to make security deposit from their personal resources to the court, the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the State Education Secretary, Director of School Education and the Chief Educational Officer, Ariyalur district, to remain present in the court on February 21 explaining the reasons for non-compliance of its earlier order seeking details of unauthorised and unrecognized schools in the state.

Recording the submission of the special government pleader (SGP) C Munuswamy that out of the four schools, three of them are duly recognised and that the Jai Hind International School alone has been functioning without obtaining any certificate of recognition, the bench said, “The institution appears to have filed a petition in this court and the same was pending consideration. SGP has stated that there is no interim order in favour of the school prohibiting any further action on the part of the department to proceed against the institution.”

“Surprisingly, despite the said position, no action appears to have been taken against the said institution and it continues with its business as usual. If there was no interim order, one would have expected the department to proceed with the said unauthorised institution to its logical end. We expect the same to be done at least by the next date of hearing with a report before this court,” the bench added.

Further, pointing out that the order on January 3 had directed the department to furnish a comprehensive and detailed status report about the private schools and colleges imparting education without affiliation to the CBSE to this court, the bench said, “The report has not been furnished by the department without assigning any proper and cogent reasons for such non-compliance but the authorities have complied by submitting the status report about the four institutions.”

Based on this, the bench on summoning the said officials directed them to file their personal affidavits explaining the reasons for noncompliance of the earlier order of this court and ensure that such comprehensive report is filed well in advance before the next dateof hearing.