The Delhi High Court asked the City Government and Delhi Police to submit an action plan to deal with bomb threats issued to schools to ensure the safety and security of children, teachers, staff and all other stakeholders on Monday, May 22.
Against the backdrop of a spate of such threats, Justice Prathiba M Singh said this never used to happen earlier and asked the Delhi Police what steps it was taking to tackle this.
The High Court also asked the police to file a status report with respect to the recent bomb threats received by Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. It impleaded Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools as a party to the petition and said the association may also place on record its suggestions. The court listed the matter for further hearing on July 31, as per a PTI report.
It was hearing a plea by a parent of a child studying at DPS Mathura Road raising concern over a string of bomb threats to schools due to which parents, students and school staff were traumatised.
Petitioner Arpit Bhargava, a lawyer, said in the plea that he was aggrieved by the lackadaisical approach of the Delhi government and police in dealing with frequent bomb threat emails received in schools.
The plea said the authorities have failed to avoid the recurrence of such threats leading to "extreme trauma, stress, harassment, inconvenience and fear" in the minds of all including the petitioner whose child is studying at DPS, Mathura Road, where one such threat was received on April 26, 2023.
Delhi government standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi and lawyer Arun Panwar said such bomb threats are scary.
The petitioner, represented by advocate Beenashaw N Soni, sought a detailed action plan and its implementation by the authorities.
“The action plan is in relation to dealing with such repeated incidents of bomb threats in schools across Delhi and to prepare for regular evacuation drills and such other exercises to be undertaken for the safety and security of children studying in schools who are ill-equipped to deal with such disasters,” the plea said.
It also sought direction from the government and police to identify the culprits, fix accountability and take action against them in a time-bound manner so the regular functioning of schools is not disturbed due to such hoax bomb threats.
