Coming down heavily on the state government, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday observed that the state should not treat children’s needs as a burden on the state exchequer.
“The children of this nation and their needs under the constitution and the laws, cannot be treated as burden on the exchequer. The funds available in the state exchequer has to be better utilised for such needs,” the HC bench observed.
A Division Bench of the High Court, comprising Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice B P Ray issued the order while dismissing an appeal filed by the state government against the single bench order asking the state to consider the application for granting Upper Primary school status to the Chembra Lower Primary school in Palakkad.
The Single Bench had observed that there was an educational need.
The state filed a petition seeking to condone the delay in filing an appeal against the single bench order of the court.
The court found that the delay in filing the appeal was attributed to administrative delay. “If the government were to take 362 days, to decide as to whether an appeal has to be filed or not, that would disclose the administrative inefficiency. And it can never be treated as a ground to condone the delay,” the bench observed.
The court pointed out that there was no reason for opposing the requirement of Upper Primary section in the school. There were 191 students in the Lower Primary section and the nearest Upper Primary school was around 3 km from the school. Walking long distances may be good for health, but the student should not be forced to undertake such journeys, the court said.