Karnataka High Court raps govt over failure to provide uniforms, says “God only knows....” 

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court came down heavily on the state government over its failure to provide uniforms to children between the age of 6 and 14 years studying in government schools as provided under Section 3 of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

“Unfortunately, instead of providing uniforms, money is being transferred to the headmasters and School Development Monitoring Committees (SDMC) concerned. That is not the objective of the Act. God only knows whether it has reached the students or not”, the court observed.

A division bench of Justices B Veerappa and KS Hemalekha passed an order on January 31, 2023, after hearing a contempt petition filed by Master Manjunath from Koppal district over the government’s failure in complying with the orders of the division bench with regard to uniforms for the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21.

In his compliance affidavit, BB Cauvery, State Project Director, Samagra Sikshana Karnataka, stated that the money has been transferred to the headmaster concerned and SDMC accounts to purchase uniforms by an order dated November 5, 2019.

With regard to providing one pair of shoes and two pairs of socks for the year 2019-20, the requisite amount was transferred to the joint accounts of the headmaster and School Development Monitoring Committees concerned as is evident from the circular dated June 21, 2019.

It is the bounden duty of the state government to show its institutional responsibility, the court said, granting two weeks’ time to report compliance, failing which, the officer concerned will have to appear before the court.

Meanwhile, the government’s advocate sought two weeks’ time to file a detailed affidavit showing the implementation of the order passed by the co-ordinate bench of the high court.