HC asks AAP govt, Centre to sit together

Take call on future of 99-yr-old dilapidated school

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Centre and the AAP government to sit together and work out a solution regarding the future of a 99-year-old school, which is in a dilapidated state, and the students studying there.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said the "endeavour at first instance" should be to provide a suitable alternative site to shift the Rajputana Rifles Heroes Memorial Senior Secondary School, currently located in Delhi Cantonment, and the second option ought to be accommodating the students in other schools. 

The direction by the court came after the Ministry of Defence said the land where the school is located cannot be handed over to the Delhi government for setting up a new institute. 

"Handing over the land in question is out of the question," the ministry told the bench.  The Delhi government, on the other hand, said that while it can accommodate the students in other schools, it needs the school in question as its other educational institutions are "overburdened". 

The court, thereafter, directed that deliberations be held at the highest level to work out a solution and a report be filed in three weeks. 

"Endeavour at the first instance shall be to provide a suitable alternative site for the school," the court said and listed the matter for further hearing on January 8, 2019.  

The bench was hearing a PIL petition by NGO Social Jurist which has alleged that Rajputana Rifles Heroes Memorial Senior Secondary School, taken over by the Delhi government in 1975 and getting 100 per cent aid from it, was in a horrible condition. 

The Directorate of Education (DoE) of the Delhi government had earlier told the court that a joint inspection of the building had revealed that it was constructed in 1919 and has outlived its useful life and was unsuitable for habitation. 

Advocate Ashok Agarwal, appearing for the NGO, had earlier said around 450 students are studying in the school and they have been unjustly deprived of adequate physical infrastructure and academic faculty. 

The plea has said though the school is open for all, it mainly caters to the children of servants of military officials who are not in a position to educate their kids in private school. 

It has alleged that the school lacks basic amenities, including potable drinking water, functional toilets, science and computer labs, clean classrooms and proper boundary wall.  

Besides, several posts of teaching staff are lying vacant. The petition has sought direction that the existing building of the school be demolished and rebuilt as a state-of -the-art school.