: The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu government to ensure the safety of school children travelling in government buses by issuing necessary guidelines on safety measures to be taken.
It also ordered necessary changes to a provision of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Act, pertaining to private school buses.
The first bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice RMT Teekaa Raman recently passed the orders on a batch of petitions by the Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation and Higher Secondary Schools Association challenging the amendments made to the Act.
When the matter came up, the bench had directed the state government to modify rule 8(2)clause(iii) of the Act, which stipulates that every school bus shall be inspected by the Special Cell once in three months.
It said that it was enough if the school buses were inspected once in six months by the special cell and disposed of the petitions.
Amendments to the Tamil Nadu Motor vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special rules, 2012 were brought after a six-year-old girl was run over by a school bus when she slipped through a hole on the floor of the vehicle at Mudichur near here in 2012.
Several PILs were filed in the court after public outcry over the incident, seeking changes to the rules.
In November 2016, the counsels for private schools sought the court to direct the state government to re-examine the two rules, 5(2) and 8(2)(iii) of the Act.
As per rule 5(2) an attendant should not be less than 21 years of age and above 50 years of age.
Besides, the person should be medically fit to get down from the school bus at each stopping point to facilitate the embarkation of school children.
Rejecting the arguments of the counsels for private schools that restricting the age of the attendant to 50 is unacceptable, the bench said, "We do not find any merit in the above submission of the petitioner's counsels.
"We hold that the committee constituted in the above regard after thorough examination and also in the light of the decisions of the Apex Court has correctly framed Rule 5(2)," it said.
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