AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday questioned the state government's insistence on 100 per cent physical attendance in schools for students despite the continuing risk of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A division bench of Chief Justice Arvind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh Kumar said the government should rather leave it to the discretion of parents as far as the school attendance is concerned.
The bench was hearing a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) challenging the Gujarat government's February 18 circular making it mandatory for all the students to attend classes in schools in person.
The government had also ordered all schools to discontinue online classes and made offline attendance mandatory.
The PIL contended that not all children below 15 years of age have received vaccination against COVID-19, and insistence on 100 per cent attendance will put them at risk.
"Why do you want to insist on 100 per cent attendance? Leave it to the discretion of the parents," the bench said.
Chief Justice Kumar cited a news report on the detection of Omicron+Delta recombinant virus in six states, one of them being Gujarat, earlier this month.
"Why do you want to take the risk? Leave it to the discretion of parents," the chief justice said.
When the government lawyer said that the state cannot insist if students do not want to attend the school, the high court sought assurance about not taking action like not allowing a student to appear for an exam or on the ground that he is absent in school.
The HC has directed the government's lawyer to seek instructions on the matter before the next hearing.
Gujarat on Wednesday reported 16 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 12,23,806, the state health department said.
The state currently has 299 active cases.