The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to include three educational experts in the committee constituted to finalise norms relating to the minimum land requirement for 746 unrecognised schools in the State.
The First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan passed the direction on a PIL petition moved by social activist A. Narayanan seeking a direction to the authorities to shut down all the 746 unrecognised schools.
When the plea came up for hearing, the Advocate General submitted that the norms applicable for the schools had been worked out. To this, the Bench pointed out that the committee, which had framed the norms consisted of only bureaucrats.
It was then agreed to include the three educational experts – S.L. Chittibabu, Lalitha and S.S.Rajagopal, who were part of the original committee that made made recommendations for private schools in the State.
The new committee comprising the experts shall now finalise the norms developed by the committee of bureaucrats, the Bench added and posted the PIL to December 22 for further hearing.
D. Sabitha, Principal Secretary to School Education Department, was present in the court during the course of hearing as per the directions of the Bench.
High Court orders their inclusion as the norms were framed by a committee of bureaucrats
