BENGALURU: The High Court has stayed the criminal proceedings initiated by the Education Department against the management of National Public School (NPS) and the withdrawal of affiliation by the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) for allegedly forging a certificate.
Justice Anand Byrareddy passed the interim order on Wednesday.
The CBSE had withdrawn affiliation of five schools in Bengaluru and one school in Mysuru after the schools had allegedly submitted forged minority certificates in order to get exemption from the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
The CBSE withdrew the affiliation on September 2, while the FIR was registered against the school in Mysuru on August 8.
The petitioners are Citizen Education Society, which runs National Public School at Rajajinagar, National Education Trust, which is managing the NPS schools at Indiranagar, Koramangala and NPS International School at Vijayanagar in Mysuru and National Academy for Learning Trust, which is running two schools at Basaveshwaranagar and HSR Layout.
The court also issued notice to CBSE, National Council for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) and one Vivekananda, the BEO who filed a complaint against the school with the Vijayanagar police in Mysuru.
In their petition, the school managements argued that the state government had lodged a criminal complaint against them without even issuing any notice. They contended that even CBSE did not bother to issue any notice to them before disaffiliating them. They also observed that they were shocked at NCMEI and its officers for disowning their own signatures.
Cases against 2 govt officials quashed
The High Court on Wednesday quashed the FIRs and subsequent proceedings initiated against two officials of the Department of Women and Child Development by Lokayukta police in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. Following two separate petitions filed by Joint Director Usha R Patwari, Bengaluru, and Muniraju, Deputy Director, Bidar, Justice Anand Byrareddy noted that the intervening order of the Superintendent of Police directing an investigation and the preparation of a source report by the Deputy Superintendent of Police and the filing of FIRs are a mere smokescreen to create an offshoot pursuant to the search that was conducted in 2012.
He held that the search and lodging of the FIR were illegal.
According to an anonymous complaint to the Lokayukta police, the Women and Child Development Department had introduced Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to supply nutritious food to children, teenage girls and pregnant women. Accordingly, M/s Christie Fried Grams Industries had an agreement with the government to supply food. The complainant alleged that Usha Patwari and Muniraju were being paid huge amounts to enable the supplier to palm off substandard food.