The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has issued a show cause notice to Maharashtra Education Minister Rajendra Darda asking him to file a reply within two weeks over a petition challenging a government order over scrutinising attendance of students in private schools. A division bench of Justices Sharad Bobde and M N Gilani was recently hearing the petition filed by the Maharashtra Khajgi Shikshan Sanstha Sanchalak Mandal (State Private Education Institutes Forum) which has challenged a government resolution (GR) of September 19 authorising the district collectors to conduct a special drive in all schools to scrutinise attendance of students. Similar notices were also issued to five other respondents,including chief secretary,secretary of education department,city collector,director of education in Pune and deputy director of education in Nagpur Mahesh Karajgaonkar. Terming the concerned GR arbitrary and contrary to the School Code,Ram Parsodkar,the counsel for the petitioner said they sought implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act,2009. Citing section 25 of the Act,the petitioner stated that the ratio of the teachers to students should be 1:30 per section and the state government has miserably failed to ensure the same. According to another GR of February 2,2009,the state government fixed the strength of students per section in urban area to 25,for rural to 20 and 15 for tribals. The government issued another GR on June 18 last year for implementing RTE provisions in respect of the ratio. The petitioner also took a strong objection to imposing of section 144 of IPC in the first week of October by the district collector while scrutinising schools.
