Mahendragarh School Bus Accident: Contempt Plea Filed In Punjab & Haryana High Court To Punish Top Officials For Disobeying Safety Guidelines

A contempt petition has been filed against top officials of Haryana for allegedly disobeying the Court's order on implementation of policy for the safety of school children, Surkashit School Vahan Policy.

On April 11, in a dreadful accident, 6 students died in Haryana's Mahendragarh when the school bus driver, who was allegedly drunk, rammed the bus into a tree.

The plea filed by Bal Kranti Trust stated that the Principal Secretary to the Government of Haryana, the Transport Commissioner and other top officials are responsible for flouting the safety measures which were formulated in policy after the High Court's direction.

The High Court in 2017, had directed the transport department of the state as well as the Commission for the Protection of child rights to monitor the implementation of the policy by all the schools, added the petitioner.

In another PIL Joint Transport Commissioner (Road Safety), Haryana filed a status report that the Surakshit School Vahan Policy 2014 is being properly implemented and the school buses as well as other vehicles are subjected to regular checking by the officials and if any laxity is found on the part of the any officials the same are liable to be dealt departmentally and further stated that teams have been constituted for the regular checking of the school buses, the plea stated.

It is alleged that the State authorities despite filing the status report before the High Court claiming that the Surkshit Vahan Policy 2014 is being implemented effectively, in fact has not monitored and implemented the Policy and as a result, a school bus ferrying 40- 45 school going children met with on dreadful accident in Mahendergarh.

The petitioner has submitted that although, FIR has been registered u/s 304 of IPC against the driver and management of the school, what about the concerned officials owing a duty to conduct regular checks of the bus in view of policy.

Therefore, it is stated that all the concerned officials a  contemnor are liable to be booked under 304 of IPC having equally participating in the occurrence while not performing their due duties.

Advocates Balraj Gujjar and Shweta Bawa for petitioner.

Title:  Bal Kranti Trust v. Navdeep Singh Virk, IPS, Principal Secretary to Government of Haryana & Ors.