RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, March 31: A school can not shrug off its responsibility even if a boy not enrolled in the school dies due to negligence of the school management. The National Human Right Commission (NHRC) on March 29 observed this directing the Jharkhand chief secretary to pay an amount of Rs.7,00,000 (Seven lacs only) to the next of kin of the deceased boy and submit a compliance report along with proof of payment within four weeks.
The development took place after the commission received a complaint on August 28, 2019, from one Onkar Vishwakarma referring to an article published in a local newspaper alleging that a 6-year-old student died due to drowning in a semi-built toilet pit in the block’s Jamdiha School. It was stated that when the students came out of the classroom for defecation, suddenly the deceased student fell into the pit and died on the spot. On receiving the information, the Deori police reached the spot and pacified the matter and took the body into possession, and sent it for post-mortem. The family of the victim accused the school of mismanagement and negligence regarding the incident.
Following the complaint, the commission directed the Superintendent of Police of Giridih and the school education and literacy department principal secretary to appear in person before the Commission on April 5, 2021, along with a copy of the requisite report as desired by this Commission. In pursuance of the same, the Commission received a report from Joint Secretary, Government of Jharkhand dated 23.7.21 stating that on 27.8.2019 after prayers one of the students told teachers that one boy was lying in a pit. All the teachers ran to the spot and took him out of the pit and sent him to the hospital. The hospital declared him dead. He was neither student of the school nor was registered with the school. The boy died one hour prior to school timings.
On which the NHRC observed that the school can not shrug off its responsibility and issued a notice to the chief secretary asking as to why compensation of Rs.7,000,00 be not recommended to be paid to the kin of the deceased for violation of his human rights. The commission gave four weeks’ time to respond.
“Perused records. The fact that the pit was dug by the school and that the same was left uncovered is undisputed. The fact that the boy fell into the said pit and died is also undisputed. The only contention of the school and government is that the boy who died was not a student of the school. Only because the boy was not a student of the school it cannot be said that they are not responsible for his death. When they got the pit dug and left it open, they had knowledge that in the future anybody is likely to fall in the pit, be it a student of the same school or some other person. They did not take minimum care to cover the pit. If at all they had covered the pit the unfortunate incident of the death of a boy could have been avoided. Thus, there was gross negligence on the part of the school which led to the loss of the precious life of the child. Now, they cannot shirk their responsibility saying that the child was not a student of the school and that they have transferred teachers to some other school. As the school was a government school, the Government of Jharkhand is vicariously liable for the negligence of the school authority. Thus, acting u/s 18(i)(a) of PHR Act-1993, Registry is directed to issue show cause notice to the Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand as to why compensation of Rs.7,000,00/- (Seven lakhs only) be not recommended to be paid to the NoK of the deceased for violation of his human rights. Response within four weeks,” the NRHC observed and ordered.
But when the Commission did not get any response on the matter, it on March 29 directed to pay the compensation. The commission set a deadline of four weeks for the payment.