"Don't Deprive Children Of Education": Bombay HC Asks Defence Authorities To Let Students Pass Through Gates Of Naval Colony To Reach School

The Bombay High Court last week asked the Ministry of Defence not to deprive any student of their right to education by shutting the gates of the Naval Civilian Housing Colony (NCHC) in Mumbai's Kanjurmarg area, because of which children are compelled to walk around 3 kilometres to reach their school which is situated within its premises.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale said the Defence authorities in NCHC can impose certain restrictions on others but must allow the school going children to pass through its gates, so that they do not have to walk 3 kms to reach out to their schools.

"Put some restrictions but don't deprive the children of getting educated...One side we are speaking about the right to education etc and then on the other side you are closing the gates and depriving the children of education...You need to think about girl children getting educated, about the general children, physically handicapped students and everyone," Justice Mohite-Dere orally remarked.

The bench said the authorities can consider giving some Identity Cards to the children and impose a clear restriction on others (general public) from using the said gates of the NCHC to enter or exit the premises.

"You can keep conditions...You can say that it (gate) is only for school children... You can say no others would be allowed... But you don't have to deprive any child of education... You can reject anyone else but when it comes to education of the children, we are sorry, you cannot shut the gates..." the bench made it clear.

The judges were hearing a petition filed by a dozen of parents highlighting the fact that the defence authorities at NCHC have closed its gates (gate numbers 4, 5 & 6) which has compiled their children to walk around 3 kms to reach their schools. The petition highlighted the fact that the children belong to the lower strata of the society as they live in the slums outside the NCHC and their parents cannot afford to take a rickshaw daily to pick and drop their children by taking the longer (3 km) road to their school.

Two naval officers were present in the courtroom during the hearing on March 13 and they informed the bench that the slums outside the colony are illegal and after the Pathankot attack, more precautions are being taken and thus the gates are being shut.

Senior Advocate Gayatri Singh for the parents informed the judges that because the students have to walk 3 km there have been around 455 "dropouts." However, the naval officers, told the judges that not all the 455 have dropped out of their schools but few of them have taken admission in other schools.

Notably, there are three schools in the premises - one is St Xavier's, and one is a civic-run school and the other is a private school.

According to the officers, the children studying in St Xavier's usually have school bus and thus they aren't before the court. Only students from the civic-run and the private school have petitioned the court. He informed that the BMC school has shut down now. And the private English school is in a shabby state and will be soon declared dilapidated.

Hearing this, Justice Mohite-Dere said, "If the school is not safe then it is the duty of the corporation to make the school habitable...The officer who told you that the school is unsafe should in fact make it habitable... since you said that the school is illegal etc, the authorities are there to take appropriate proceedings but till that time do not stop the children from studying... we don't want the children to drop out like this."

The judges, therefore ordered the defence authorities both locally and in the central ministry to find out a workable solution to the issue and granted three weeks time to the authorities for deciding whether to open the gates for the children or not.

"Take some measure... Restrict timings...But consider it sympathetically" the bench told the naval officers, while adjourning the hearing for three weeks.