SC makes group insurance, fire safety must for all schools

In an attempt to create a safer environment for lakhs of children in private and government schools across the country, the Supreme Court on Monday banned the use of toxic or inflammable material in the buildings and directed managements to subscribe to group insurance so that children are covered against all calamities and accidents.

The court held that the right to education includes the right to study in safe schools, equipped to meet any kind of disaster. It laid down a six-month time frame for schools to install fire-fighting equipment and make their premises safer.

The judgment came on a public interest petition filed by Avinash Mehrotra seeking direction to the central and state governments to strictly adhere to the National Building Code of India, 2005.

Mehrotra’s petition drew the court’s attention to the fire incident in the Lord Krishna Middle School at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu in which 93 children were burnt alive in a building that lacked adequate exits and fire extinguishers.

“The right to education requires that a child study in a quality school, and a quality school certainly should pose no threat to a child’s safety,” ruled a bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Lokeshwar Singh Panta.

Underlining the importance of the right to education, which is an “inalienable right”, the court said “children can’t be compelled to receive education (in) an unsound and unsafe building. In view of what happened in the Lord Krishna Middle School, Kumbakonam... and similar incidents in the past, it has become imperative to direct that safety measures as prescribed by the National Building Code of India, 2005, be implemented...”

The court said the authorities must make safety of the school a pre-condition for affiliation.

It appreciated the efforts put in by Gujarat, which has set up an emergency management office and published a book teaching children how to respond to emergencies.