KOCHI: While admitting children to their boarding houses, school authorities should take adequate steps to ensure their welfare, the Kerala High Court has observed. The court said the school authorities owe a duty to the child as well as the parents who repose faith in them.
The court issued the order on an appeal filed by Dr Mathew George, SJ Hospital, Moolamattam, challenging an order of the Sub Court, Thodupuzha. The Sub Court had found negligence on the part of the doctor in the death of Bineesh Rajan, a 12-year-old student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kulamavu, Idukki, who succumbed to jaundice in July 1990.
The High Court observed the child was away from the parents and was under the care and custody of the school authorities. It could be nothing but negligence of the school authorities that led to the failure to provide proper care to the child when he fell sick.
The school authorities had not informed the parents when the child developed fever on July 12, 1990. The nurse in the school was given leave even when the student was sick. The school authorities failed in their duty in taking proper care of the child, said the court. The school authorities said the child was taken to the doctor after finding him suffering from fever.
They said the parents had taken the child from their custody on July 16, 1990, and it was the lapses in treatment thereafter which caused the demise of the child.Though every ward is attached to a house master, who is supposed to take care of the child, he had not examined the child when he fell sick, the court said.