Come up with a policy decision in favour of children, parents:High Court

Hyderabad: The High Court on Wednesday directed the State Government to seriously think of this issue and come up with a policy decision in favour of the children and parents.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy heard a public interest litigation filed by Hyderabad School Parents Association seeking that conducting online classes by the private schools as illegal, arbitrary, violation of Article 14 and Article 21, life and liberty for subjecting the school children to physical and mental stress. Further, it is a violation of Article 21A of the constitution which guarantees right to free and compulsory education to all children and ultra vires of right of children to free and compulsory education and consequently ban the online classes being conducted by the private schools in the state of Telangana, the petition held.

Chief Justice R S Chauhan questioned the State government whether there is any policy decision taken by the Government for the entire State that no School in the State can be conducted online classes. Those parents who are poor are facing difficulty, why policy decisions have not been taken and why it has not been implemented across the State by the Government, CJ pointed out.

Recently Punjab and Haryana High Court laid elaborate guidelines on online classes because the same issue arose in Punjab and Haryana. The guidelines are that classes will be permitted and online classes are also permitted but those parents who cannot afford the laptops and whose children cannot log into online classes, they cannot be penalised. And also not to collect fees from these persons, The Punjab and Haryana High Court laid guidelines, CJ added.

Counsel Nageswar Reddy pointed out that on June 29, fresh guidelines have been issued by the central government permitting the distance online and distance learning be continued to permit and shall be encouraged. Chief Justice questioned that these guidelines were issued by the central government binding on the State governments, because some of the States, as in the case of Maharashtra, stopped online classes, as they said schools cannot be permitted to hold online classes.

The Central guidelines binding on the State shall be issued to every State of the Union, it cannot be binding only on Telangana but not on Maharashtra, What is the effect of such guidelines, the Court added.

The Bench said that 'too many people here cannot afford laptops and smartphones. If I have three children going to two different schools, then I need two laptops and they may be in different classes, then how do I have three laptops, where would I get the money to buy three laptops?'

The CJ Bench directed the State government to file a detailed report on the online classes and adjourned the matter to July 3.