“Instead of providing uniforms, the State government is unfortunately transferring money to headmasters and the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) for providing them to students in government schools, and that is not the object of RTE Act. God only knows whether they have reached the students or not,” the High Court of Karnataka has observed.
A Division Bench, comprising Justice B. Veerappa and Justice K.S. Hemalekha, made these observations while hearing a contempt of court petition filed in 2020 by eight-year-old Manjunath, a student from Koppal.
The petitioner alleged that the mandate of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act and the court’s 2019 order for providing two sets of uniforms, etc., were not effectively implemented even though the government had issued circulars for transferring funds to the SDMCs for providing uniforms for the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21.
The Bench said that it was the duty of the State government to provide uniforms to children, in the 6 to 14 age group, studying in government schools as provided under Section 3 of RTE Act, as observed by the court in its 2019 order passed on a PIL petition filed by Master Manjunath.
“There is no clarity in the affidavit filed by the officer concerned. There is no strict compliance of the order passed by the court in 2019 in its true spirit,” the Bench said, while refusing to accept the government’s claim that the 2019 order was substantially complied with.
“It is high time for the State government to ensure that the object of Section 3 of the RTE Act and Articles 21A and 45 of the Constitution of India are fulfilled. It is the bounden duty of the State government to show its institutional responsibility,” the court observed while adjourning further hearing.
