Kumar Siddhartha, Pune
The Supreme Court has ordered all of the States and Union Territories to comply with guidelines issued by the Union government in 2021, taking responsibility for the protection of children into its hands by school management. A bench headed by Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh entrusted the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to supervise the execution of the order passed by the Supreme Court.
These guidelines also talk about the role of both the teaching as well as non-teaching staff for the safety and the security of children. NCPCR was tasked with monitoring this compliance to ensure that effective steps were taken by educational institutions in putting these guidelines in place.
On Tuesday, the bench ordered the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to monitor the implementation of its order and disposed of Bachpan Bachao Andolan’s PIL led by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi.
The aim of the petition is to protect children from exploitation and abuse towards their betterment physically, socially, psychologically, and morally. In such cases school management or heads will be held responsible for students’ safety while clearly defining roles for staff, parents, and counselors.
The plea sought an order calling for the urgency to implement guidelines in the wake of crimes in schools. Furthermore, it also highlighted that free and compulsory education has been provided to children from age of six to 14 years under Article 21A of the Constitution. This places equal responsibility on both schools, and government to secure children against hazards, abuse, violence, and accidents.
Senior advocate HS Phoolka and Jagjit Singh Chabra represented the PIL, noting that only a few states and UTs adopted the guidelines.
The guidelines, notified in October 2021, were sent to all states and Union territories, and were awaited by the bench to be adopted along with necessary modifications, with instructions for their adoption and implementation.
Senior advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi appearing for NCPCR stated that the compliance notices issued to the states haven’t been responded to, she sought a direction for filing of reports with the commission.
Bench agreed with this and said NCPCR has the right to ask status or ATR to know the implementation about these guidelines.