Uttar Pradesh: Though facing legal trouble, Rampur Public School will reopen for internal assessments

The Rampur Public School in Uttar Pradesh is facing legal trouble, amidst ongoing students' internal assessments. The school is run on leased land and its lease expired on January 28 this year. The matter is being heard at the Allahabad High Court, which said on Thursday, March 16, that there was no fault of the children studying in the school, as per a report by IANS.

Why the HC case?
The government building of the Jauhar Research Institute, in which the school is currently run by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's Jauhar Trust, was given to it on a Rs 100 yearly lease for 99 years by the party regime. After the lease expired, the Minorities Welfare Officer of Rampur directed that the building be vacated, as per another report by PTI.

A senior district administration official said that notices were served to the manager of the trust several times asking them to vacate the school. When the school building was not vacated, the Rampur district administration sealed the entire premises on Tuesday, March 14.

A petition was filed in the Allahabad High Court by the executive committee of the trust, seeking the completion of the internal examinations of students studying in the school. According to the IANS report, the high court expressed "strong displeasure", stating that it was wrong to seal schools at the time of examination.

The court proceedings
A division bench of Justices Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Anish Kumar Gupta heard the petition. The Additional Advocate General (AAG) on record stated that the Advocate General (AG) would argue this case on behalf of the state government. However, since he was not available, it was urged that the case be taken up on March 21.

On this, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that he had no objection to the adjournment but the ongoing internal examination for students of Classes I-IX and Class XI was the difficulty. It was urged that no interference should be made till the exam concluded on March 18.

The AAG replied that the classrooms required for internal examinations of students on March 17 and March 18 would be opened. He also assured that no interference would be caused by the district administration during the course of conduct of the examinations from 6 am to 3 pm on both days, as per PTI.