Taking serious cognizance of an alleged sexual assault on a nine-year-old girl in the washroom of a school at Dadar in north-central Mumbai, the Bombay High Court on Monday asked the managements of schools in the metropolis to install CCTVs on their premises.
Hearing a bunch of public interest litigations on the issue of women safety in the city, a division bench of justices NH Patil and AA Sayed expressed its shock over the incident of sexual assault that took place at a Dadar school last week. The HC bench wanted to know from the Maharashtra’ State Education department as to what steps it had taken and would take to check recurrence of such incidents.
At a Dadar school, a 19-year-old cleaner-cum-errand boy working for the school had allegedly perpetrated a sexual assault on a standard-V girl in a wash room, on January 8.
“This is very disturbing. Parents send their kids to school in a faith that the school authorities and teachers will take care of them. What steps is the education department planning to take to ensure that such incidents do not occur. Periodical vigilance is required,” the HC division bench said.
“CCTVs should be installed inside school premises. Make it mandatory at least for those schools which receive grant from the Government,” the Judges said. As it scheduled the petitions for further hearing on January 22, the HC bench directed the Maharashtra Government to file a short affidavit on the steps taken by it to prevent incidents like the one witnessed at the school located at Dadar on January 8.