Gujarat High Court
Suo Motu vs State Of Gujarat Through Additional ... on 21 June, 2022
Author: Aravind Kumar
Bench: Aravind Kumar, Ashutosh J. Shastri
C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/WRIT PETITION (PIL) NO. 148 of 2021
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SUO MOTU
Versus
STATE OF GUJARAT THROUGH ADDITIONAL SECRETARY
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Appearance:
SUO MOTU for the Applicant(s) No. 1
MR MEET SHAH & MR ANMOL MEHTA - AMICUS CURIAE
MR KAMAL B TRIVEDI, ADVOCATE GENERAL with MRS MANISHA
LAVKUMAR SHAH, GOVERNMENT PLEADER with MR VINAY B VISHEN,
AGP for the Opponent(s) No. 1,2
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CORAM:HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE
ARAVIND KUMAR
and
HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH J. SHASTRI
Date : 21/06/2022
ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR. JUSTICE ARAVIND KUMAR)
1. This Court by order dated 17.12.2021, took suo motu cognizance of a news item published in 'Indian Express', Ahmedabad Edition dated 17.12.2021, titled as 'No school building students sitting in open.....'. Having extracted the report, notice came to be issued to the State and when the matter was listed before the Court on 20.4.2022, affidavit filed by Mr. Bhavesh Erda, Additional Secretary, Education Department placed on record which came to be perused by this Court and it was observed as under:-
5. Having regard to the nature of the issue involved in this Page 1 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022 C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022 petition, we are of the considered view that State should be directed to place on record the details of the school buildings in the State of Gujarat, District/ Taluka-
wise, including infrastructure facilities provided to the school children in those schools. Hence, we direct the respondents to place on record the details of all school buildings in the State of Gujarat by specifying the nature of building in which schools are running, infrastructure facilities like playgrounds, washroom facilities are provided. The said details shall be placed on record by District and Taluka-wise. Said exercise shall be undertaken immediately and shall be placed on record by next date of hearing.
2. We had also appointed Amicus Curiae, namely Mr. Meet Shah and Mr. Anmol Ajay Mehta, learned members of the Bar to assist the Court by our order of even date. Having regard to the nature of cause, aforesaid order dated 20.4.2022 came to be passed, where-under, State was called upon to place on record details of all schools buildings in the State of Gujarat, District/ Taluka wise, including infrastructure facilities provided to the school children in those schools. Accordingly, further affidavit of Additional Secretary has been filed on 20.6.2022. A perusal of said affidavit would indicate that in compliance of the order passed by this Court dated 20.4.2022, State has placed on record statistics enclosing the same with the affidavit. A perusal of the same would indicate that there are in all 32319 Government schools in the entire State with 47,07,846 students. Page 2 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022
C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022 In almost all schools, facilities towards school buildings, drinking water, toilets for boys and girls are in place. At this juncture itself, it would be apt and appropriate to note that suo motu cognizance of the news published in newspaper, referred to herein-above, was taken by this Court on account of one of the school buildings having collapsed. The photographs produced along with the additional affidavit dated 20.6.2022 and particularly Annexure-5 would indicate that pakka RCC building having been constructed at Vaghalvada with other infrastructures and thus, apprehension expressed by this Court stands allayed.
3. By interim order passed on 17.12.2021, this Court had directed the State to immediately undertake construction of a new school building which is relating to Vaghalvada, which has been constructed as noticed herein supra.
4. It would also be necessary to note that State of Gujarat has put up strenuous efforts by virtue of which, Net Enrollment Rate in the schools (NER), which was 75.05% in the year 2002-03 has arisen to 99.25% in the year 2012-13 and is now close to achieving 100% . So also, schools drop-out ratio across the State Page 3 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022 C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022 from Grade-I to Grade-VIII which was to the tune of 18.79% in the year 2004-05 has come down to 3.07% in the year 2020-21. State Government through its various initiatives and schemes promoted for encouraging the girls to attend schools, seems to have significantly helped in reducing dropout of girls to 1.29% for Grades I to V and 3.46% for Grades VI to VIII by the year 2021. In fact, Students of Class Room ratio (SCR) has been effectively addressed to by the State as 1.37 lakhs of Classrooms have been built from 2001 to 2021, which resulted in SCR to 26:1 in 2020- 21 from 38:1 in 2001-02. In fact, State has recruited about 1.96 lakhs Teachers and Head Teachers in last 20 years, which has also led to improvement in Pupil-Teacher ratio (PTR) to 28:1 in the year 2020-21 from 40:1 in 2001-02.
5. The affidavit would also disclose State has devised a surveillance system known as 'Vidya Samiksha Kendra' which ensures or tracks enrollment, attendance, learning outcomes, drop-outs, school accreditation and monitoring, teachers and block and clusters resource center coordinators, which is said to have monitored 54,000 Primary and Secondary Government Schools and also handholds about 4 lakh teachers to improve learning outcome to nearly 1.15 crore students. Page 4 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022
C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022
6. Learned Advocate General, on instructions, would submit that Gujarat Council for School Education is also monitoring all infrastructure requirements and has drawn attention of this Court to Annexure-I appended to the affidavit, which is the infrastructure of the buildings under construction, number of schools in Government buildings and the number of schools located in rented or rent free building across the State- District- wise. Said Annexure would also disclose as to the facilities or infrastructure, like drinking water, boys and girls toilets, playgrounds available to the students and perusal of the same would indicate that in most of the Districts and Talukas, infrastructure facility like playgrounds, toilets, drinking water facility has been provided including the buildings for conducting classes inside the classrooms. He would also assure the Court that any incident which has been brought to the notice of either Vidya Samiksha Kendra, Samagra Siksha Kendra or Gujarat Council for School Education of any shortfall would be addressed. His submission is placed on record. We do not see any good ground as to why said statement made should not be accepted, particularly in the background of statistics placed before the Court clearly disclosing the steps taken by State authorities Page 5 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022 C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022 which are not only satisfactory but which is also almost on par with any other private schools. This findings also get support from the Annexures produced along with the affidavit at Annexure-III and Annexure-IV, which discloses the repairs which was required to be carried out to the existing classrooms, toilets on being brought to the notice of the authorities, same has received immediate attention and the very fact that the repairs have been carried out as evidenced from the photographs is a mirror to this fact.
7. The interim report by the learned amicus curiae filed on 21.6.2022 is also perused by us. Learned amicus curiae would draw the attention of the Court to the newspaper report published in 'Divya Bhaskar', Ahmedabad Edition dated 3.6.2022, where-under, it is stated tender for reconstruction of 475 classrooms are approved but no optional arrangements are made for the students to take classes elsewhere. However, the statement made on oath by the Additional Secretary enclosing the statistics relating to schools in general and in particular, in Vadodara district would disclose that out of 1076 Government schools located in the State in District of Vadodara, 1071 school buildings are located in Government buildings and four schools Page 6 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022 C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022 are run either in rented premises or rent free buildings and all 1076 schools do have infrastructure facilities, except playground for 108 schools not being available. Some of the schools having been established long number of years ago and vacant spaces obviously being available adjacent to the schools are used as playground. As such, it would open for the State to take such steps for making available the playgrounds for these students if same not being available. The State being alive to the problems addressed by the stakeholders and same being attended to, is evidenced from the affidavit of the Additional Secretary and we may refer to paragraph 4 of the said affidavit with benefit, where-under it is stated that immediately on amicus addressing a communication on 18.5.2022 to learned Assistant Government Pleader informing about one school named, 'Pratappura Primary School', situated in Santrampur Taluka, District Mahisagar about inadequacies in school building and its infrastructure facilities, necessary instructions have been issued and all steps to remedy deficiencies have been taken. This fact has also been communicated or intimated to the amicus by reply dated 18.6.2022 and as such, this Court is not only satisfied with the steps taken by State but also places on record its appreciation Page 7 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022 C/WPPIL/148/2021 ORDER DATED: 21/06/2022 for immediate steps being taken on such deficiencies being pointed out and as such, by placing same on record our appreciation for the services of learned amicus curiae for having taken steps to highlight the deficiencies, which has been equally responded to by State, with all speed, it would not be necessary for continuation of this proceedings and accordingly, we CLOSE present proceedings.
8. This Court has placed on record the services rendered by learned Amicus Curiae Shri Meet Shah and Shri Anmol Mehta as Amicus Curiae, and direct the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority to pay remuneration of Rs.5,000/- to each of the Advocate.
(ARAVIND KUMAR,CJ) (ASHUTOSH J. SHASTRI, J) OMKAR Page 8 of 8 Downloaded on : Sat Dec 24 19:16:19 IST 2022