Delhi HC Receives PIL Over Overcrowded Classrooms Amid Incomplete School Building

In response to the issue of an unfinished school building that has detrimentally affected the academic performance and health of roughly 8,000 students enrolled at the Delhi Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Mukundpur Village, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed with the Delhi High Court, according to a report from the Times of India.

Based on the petition filed, funding has been allocated to build new classroom facilities on the campuses of the Government Boys Senior Secondary School and the Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Mukundpur Village.

However, all of the funds required to make the school fully operational were not put to use. The plea pointed out that the school premises have two operational buildings with a total of 40 classrooms. Furthermore, the under-construction school building, on which 80 per cent of the work has been completed, will include 28 classrooms. Work on this structure is claimed to has been stalled for the past 2.5 years.

It was also stated that due to a lack of classrooms, children from two sections were forced to sit in the same classroom, putting their health at risk due to suffocation caused by a lack of classrooms with adequate space and a large number of students occupying them.

The argument made in the petition is that the Delhi Government’s Director of Education violated morality and justice by neglecting to provide students with enough classroom space and seating arrangements. This is said to be a violation of the fundamental right to education protected by Articles 14, 21, and 21-A of the Indian Constitution.

TOI reported that the Government Boys Senior Secondary School has a total enrollment of 3804 students in classes 6 to 12, and the Government Girls Senior Secondary School has a total enrollment of 4290 students in classes 6 to 12, with regard to information provided by Social Jurist, a Civil Rights Group through Advocates Ashok Agarwal and Kumar Utkarsh.

Meanwhile, to ensure that the student ratio is adhered to in the true sense of the word, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) instructed schools to reduce the overall number of students in each class and keep the strength in all sections at 40 in one of its circulars. As a result, teaching more than 100 students in one classroom when the classroom was designed for 48 students is a concerning scenario.