The Madras High Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the delay on the part of the State government in producing before the Court the draft rules it had framed for regulating school buses.
“It is unfortunate that in such a serious matter, the draft rules have not been produced before us till date, despite the assurance by the Advocate-General to produce them before us without seeking any further adjournments,” observed the First Bench comprising Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice A. Arumughaswamy.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the incident on July 25 in which S. Sruthi, a class II student of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Selaiyur, fell through a hole in the school bus and was run over at Mudichur, the court had directed the State government to frame rules for regulating school buses. It had asked the Advocate-General A. Navaneethakrishnan to produce the draft rules before the Court.
On the last hearing on August 22, the government submitted that the rules had been finalised and would be placed before the cabinet in a couple of days.
When the matter came up on Wednesday, the AG sought more time for producing the rules.
The Bench observed that on the last two occasions the government had stated that the draft rules had to be approved by the cabinet.
The Court said “It has been brought to our notice that after the incident, which is the subject matter of this writ petition, five more accidents involving the deaths of school children have taken place.”
The matter has been posted for September 3.
