The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has sought the response of the State to a public interest litigation petition for installing and maintaining sanitary napkin vending machines and electric incinerators at higher educational institutions in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.
The petitioner M. Pozhilan of K.K. Nagar in Madurai, a final year law student, said he had inquired with his friends about the presence of sanitary napkin vending machines and electric incinerators in their colleges and universities. Majority of his friends said that there were no such machines installed in their campus.
He said that he had carried out a preliminary survey regarding the machines and found that the number of machines installed on the campus were not sufficient. Even if they were installed, they were not functioning or maintained properly. He said the used sanitary napkins were getting disposed of into dustbins which is not safe.
The safest method of disposing of the used sanitary napkins is through electric incinerators. However, in most of the universities and colleges, a sufficient number of electric incinerators have not been installed. The installation of sanitary napkin vending machines and electric incinerators in all Higher Educational Institutions in the State is necessary, he said.
A Division Bench of Justices D. Krishnakumar and R. Vijayakumar sought the response of the State and adjourned the hearing in the case by two weeks. The court also directed the petitioner to implead University Grants Commission as a respondent in the PIL petition.
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