Karnataka HC directs authorities to rebuild within 4 months school demolished for Expressway

The Karnataka high court has directed the authorities to rebuild the government Agaralingana Doddi School in Maddur taluk of Mandya district within four months from June 1, 2023. The entire school building was demolished after it was acquired for Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway project and since past three years the school is being run in a small room.

Citing the example of a train station on the Island of Hokkaido in Japan, that existed for one school going child, Justice M Nagaprasanna said the issue before the court was not ‘just one school’, it is ‘even one school’. “It is, therefore, the people round the globe tipped their hats in praise of the Japanese government for making education even of one child a top priority. It was lauded as good governance at the grass-root level,” the court said, pulling up the authorities for their lackadaisical approach.

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The petition was filed by the school development and monitoring committee (SDMC) of Government Lower Primary School, Agaralingana Doddi, Maddur taluk. After around 752 sq mtrs of the land was acquired by the NHAI, compensation amount of Rs 66.95 lakh, held in joint account is now Rs 72.40 lakh. Though many had volunteered to donate the land for the new school building, there was no response from the authorities to the representations submitted by the SDMC.

The court said that it would not permit the state to reduce the fundamental right of children under Article 21-A of the Constitution of India, to a ‘mere rope of sand’ and the same cannot be rendered illusory by sheer red tapism on the part of officers.

“The communications made between the offices clearly indicate that the right to free and compulsory education of children, particularly in the government school, is treated with utmost callousness, which cannot be countenanced. The State ought to have taken immediate steps, on receipt of compensation amount in the year 2020 from the National Highways Authorities, in reply to the representation of the SDMC to construct school building without any loss of time, so that the young children would not lose their education. The officers who handled these files are responsible for such apathy towards the cause of the children in the government school,” Justice Nagaprasanna said.

The court has asked the petitioner to report compliance and said the state government is also at liberty to place on record compliance with the directions from time to time.