HC to New Era School: don’t shift location of classes

However,parents opposed the decision alleging that school actually wanted to run International General Certificate of Secondary Education course from the present building near Gowalia tank,and shift SSC students elsewhere.

The court order has come in the wake of petition moved by The Forum for Fairness in Education and parents of students belonging to the SSC section of the school. Petitioners’ counsel Mukesh Vashi claimed that IGCS course is more lucrative,hence the management wanted to shift SSC classes.

However,the school’s stand was that the building at Gowalia tank was old and structural engineer’s report suggested it should be demolished,as it was not earthquake proof.

The court had subsequently appointed a committee to examine if the building was unsafe,and needed reconstruction. The committee’s report said that the building was safe.

Relying on the report,division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari today upheld petitioners’ case,directing the school not to shift classes. After the Aditya Birla group recently acquired the school,it started offering IGCSE since last year along with SSC.

In November last year,the school sent a circular to all the students which stated that “considering the growing need for school for more space and the current state of the school building,the management of the school plans to demolish the existing school building and reconstruct the existing one with modern amenities and utilities.” It also goes on to say that the school management had considered carrying out the renovation while the school work goes on but it would ‘significantly endanger the safety of the children and impact their studies.’

Parents said that the Education Inspector,D Ward,had issued a letter on June 11 to the management of the school,directing them to start the SSC curriculum school from June 15 at the existing location. They had also issued a second letter dated June 17 to the management asking them why they had not started the SSC School and called for an explanation.

A parent had pointed out that according to a Supreme Court ruling,if a school needs to be shifted it should be shifted within the radius of 1.5 kms. The proposed location for the SSC school is around 5 km away from the original location.