The division bench of Calcutta High Court headed by Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava on Thursday rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the state government’s decision to reopen schools and colleges from November 16.
While rejecting the petition by a law student, the bench observed that the petitioner failed to cite proper reasons for her apprehension that reopening schools would put extra pressure on students and parents.
The petitioner had claimed that the notification issued by the state education department was “confusing” as it had been decided that students would be allowed to choose between online and offline examinations.
The state advocate general, S.N. Mookherjee, informed the court that the state authorities had taken steps to sanitise school buildings.
The advocate-general also said the morale of the students would break down further if the educational institutions were not reopened now.
The petitioner had also alleged that the decision to reopen schools would put extra financial pressure on parents, many of whom were still in financial trouble because of the pandemic.
The bench held the parents would have the liberty to inform schools if they had any problem in regard to the decision of reopening educational institutions and the process of examinations.