MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently allowed an appeal filed by the state school education department against the compensation awarded by a single bench of the court to a boy, who lost vision in his right eye allegedly after an accident at his school in May 2010.
According to an order passed by a bench of Justices P Velmurugan and KK Ramakrishnan, the boy was attending special classes held for students entering Class 10 at a private school in Kanniyakumari district.
It was alleged that on May 5, 2010, another student of the school attacked the boy with a stone on the school’s premises, causing injuries in his right eye, eventually resulting in loss of vision.
When the injured boy’s parent moved the high court seeking compensation, a single bench reportedly directed the government to pay Rs 25 lakh compensation to the boy’s family, challenging which the government filed an appeal.
During the hearing, it was pointed out that the school, a minority institution, had conducted classes during holidays in violation of the government’s instructions. Yet, no action was taken against the correspondent and headmaster of the school, the boy’s parents alleged. They also contended that the incident would not have occurred if the classes had not been conducted.
However, the division bench pointed out that it could not find an iota of material to prove the cause of the injury. Cases of this nature require evidence and the writ court, without any proper pleadings and documentary evidence, ought not to have decided the matter, the judges said and set aside the single bench order.