A plea seeking framing of “non- negotiable” child safety conditions and implementation of guidelines to protect school children from sexual abuse and murder on Friday prompted the Supreme Court to seek responses from the Centre and all State governments.
A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud issued notices and sought the responses within three weeks from the Union Human Resource Development Ministry and all State governments and union territories on the plea filed by two women lawyers, Abha R Sharma and Sangeeta Bharti.
The top court tagged the plea of the lawyers along with the petition filed by the father of seven-year-old Pradyuman, who was killed allegedly by a bus conductor at Gurugram’s Ryan International School.
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The Supreme Court will also hear on Monday the plea of a man, whose 9-year-old son died last month allegedly under mysterious circumstances in a private school in Ghaziabad, seeking a CBI probe in the case.
The PIL, filed through lawyer Sujeeta Srivastava, has raised the issue of children “being exploited and subjected to child abuse repeatedly within the boundaries of the schools” and demanded that Central and State governments notify a set of “non-negotiable” child safety conditions for schools.
It has sought proper implementation of existing guidelines of authorities including the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on prevention of child abuse in schools.
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Referring to the guidelines, it said every school is required to have a “child protection policy which should be understood, explained and signed by all employees or recruits.”
All new employees must go through a day-long orientation programme on issues relating to child protection within a month of their joining, the plea said referring to the guidelines.