Delhi High Court to MCD: ‘Why can’t notebooks, uniforms be distributed directly to students?’

During the hearing, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora took note of an affidavit filed by the civic authority which states that around 75 per cent of the total enrolment of 6,61,737 students have bank accounts to receive direct benefit transfers for purchase of notebooks, stationery, and uniforms.

As many as 1,60,855 students do not have bank accounts as of May 10, the affidavit stated. Through camps organised by banks on school premises, the MCD is attempting to get bank accounts opened for all the students by June 15, it added.

The bench, thereafter, orally queried, “The scheme needs a little bit of tweaking. The money must get transferred to the school principal and they must be made responsible for the purchase of uniforms and writing materials. Why can’t they spend it directly? Why is this term there that it must be ‘transferred to the wards’?”.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Ashok Agarwal remarked that though the Delhi government was distributing the benefits to its school students, the same was not happening in MCD schools.

“When students get things in kind (notebooks etc.,) they feel very happy,” Agarwal emphasised.

Meanwhile, MCD’s counsel submitted that the “benchmark for opening all accounts is June 15”.

To this the court orally said, “How do you ensure that the money transferred is used for this purpose?There are a lot of competing claims. Maybe for food etc., a person may use this money. How do you ensure that it is used for this (benefits) reason only? That’s why Mr Agarwal is suggesting that there should be a direct transfer of books, uniform instead of money. That would be more appropriate”.

The MCD’s counsel said that the principal and teachers of the schools concerned are the ones who check that the money is utilised for the said purpose.

“We have taken June 15 to complete this exercise. On July 1 schools will open. We will come to know how the money has been utilised and we are sincerely making efforts that every child comes in uniform and the money is utilised for the purpose it is set out for,” the counsel said.

The MCD’s counsel submitted that the civic body would hold an internal meeting if it is not able to sort the matter by June 15.

Aggarwal had also argued that the authority had issued directions to strike off names of “long absentee students” from the register of students in its schools. However MCD ‘s counsel clarified that the long absentee students have only been moved to “dormant status and on their rejoining the dormant status would be revoked”.

In response to a pointed question from the bench, MCD’s counsel clarified that the names of the long absentee students are “not being deleted/removed from the school register”.

“The statement and the clarification given by the counsel for Respondent 3 (MCD) is accepted by this court,” the bench said.

The court, while listing the matter on July 4, called for a fresh status report by July 1.

Last month the MCD Commissioner had stated that the non-distribution of the benefits was due to the non-formation of a standing committee which has the power to approve projects worth over Rs 5 crore.

On April 29 the bench had passed an order observing that there is a “ring of truth” in the statement of Minister of Urban Development Saurabh Bharadwaj, who had said that any increase in the financial power of the MCD Commissioner shall require the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s approval, which amounts to an admission that the Delhi government is at a “standstill” in the CM’s absence.

The court had then said, “The decision of the Chief Minister, despite having been arrested, and his petition being dismissed by a learned Single Judge of this Court to continue to hold the position is his personal decision. However, it does not mean that if the Chief Minister is not available, the fundamental rights of young children would be trampled upon and they would go through the first term (1st April to 10th May) without free textbooks, writing material and uniform.”

It had, thereafter, in its April 29 order directed the MCD Commissioner to undertake the expenditure without being constrained by the Rs 5 crore expenditure limit, while clarifying that the expenditure shall be “subject to statutory audit”.