PIL on the subject of right of education of the children who are living in different prisons of...

7/27/2019 PIL on the subject of right of education of the children who are living in different prisons of Uttar Pradesh alongwith their mothers.

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD

*****I N D E X

IN

CIVIL MISC. WRIT PETITION (PIL) NO. 42247 OF 2013(Under Article 226 of the Constitution of India)

(DISTRICT :: ALLAHABAD.)

Peoples Vigilance Committee for Human Right (PVCHR).

Petitioner.

Versus

State of U.P. & others.

Respondents.

Sl.

No.

Particular of Papers. Date Annex.

No.

Page No.

Fm | To

1. List of relevant dates and events .

2. Civil Misc. Stay Application.

(Under Section 151 of the Civil

Procedure).

3. Civil Misc. (PIL) Writ Petition.

(Under Article 226 of the Constitution

of India).

4. Photocopy of the report prepared by

Ambrina Khan, a law intern and a

student of LL.M. IInd Year, N.L.U.,

Bangalore.

(1)

5. Photocopy of the list of the Central

Jails and District Jails of Uttar

Pradesh.

(2)

7. Affidavit in support of the Writ


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*****

LIST OF RELEVANT DATES & EVENTS

IN

CIVIL MISC. WRIT PETITION (PIL) NO. OF 2013

(Under Article 226 of the Constitution of India)


Peoples Vigilance Committee for Human Right (PVCHR).

Petitioner.

Versus

State of U.P. & others. Respondents.

Dates Events

1972 Basic Education Act was enacted and Basic Shiksha

Parishad took the control of the primary schools and junior

high school for imparting education.

2001 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) was started in

2001-02 and was applied in 16 districts of Uttar Pradesh and

now it covers all 70 districts of Uttar Pradesh which is

meant for providing useful and relevant elementary

education for all children in the 6-14 group by 2010. It has

also to bridge social regional and gender gap. Under this

scheme, fee books, dress and bags are provided to the

students of primary and junior high school.

01.04.2010 By Constitutional 86th Amendment, Article 21-A was

inserted in the Constitution providing Right to Education.

01.04.2010 The Right to Children to Free and Compulsory Education,

2009 was enacted which has made the Right of Education as

a fundamental right to the children below the age of 6-14

and the State was made responsible for ensuring the Right of


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Education.

There are hundreds of children living in Central and District

Jails of Uttar Pradesh whose mothers are either convicted

prisoners or under trials in five central jails and 50 district

jails of Uttar Pradesh including one Ideal Jail and one Nari

Bandi Niketan.

There is no provision of education to be imparted to these

children in the backdrop of the promulgation of the new act

of Right to Education.

With the advent of the new act of Right to Education, it is

the responsibility of the State and the authorities to ensure

that the children are enrolled and attend classes for their

elementary education between the age to 6-14.

The children living in prisons are denied the right ofeducation which is also violative of Article 21 & 21-A of

the Constitution of India.

The Petitioner organization collected important material and

law student Ambrina Khan made exhaustive research to

concretize the fact situation.

July, 2013 Hence this present PIL writ petition filed by the Petitioner.

(Mamta Singh) (K.K. Roy),

Advocate,

Advocate Roll A/M0149 & A/K0040,

Counsels for the Petitioner,

Lawyers Chamber No. 122,

Dated : July, 2013 High Court, Allahabad.

Mob.: 8005333039.


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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD*****

CIVIL MISC. STAY APPLCIATION No. of 2013(Under Chapter XXII Rule 1 of the High Court Rules)

On behalf of :-

Peoples Vigilance Committee for Human Right (PVCHR),

Applicant/Petitioner.

IN

CIVIL MISC. WRIT PETITION (PIL) NO. OF 2013(Under Article 226 of the Constitution of India)



Through its President Lenin Raghuvanshi,

R/o S-A 4/2A, Daulatpur,

Varanasi.

Petitioner.

Versus

1. State of U.P.

Thoughts Principal Secretary (Home),

U.P., Lucknow.

2. State of U.P.

Through Principal Secretary,

Basic Education,

Lucknow (U.P.),

3. Director General (Prisons),

Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow.

Respondents.

To,

The Honble the Chief Justice and his other companion Judges of the

aforesaid court.


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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD*****




Through its President Lenin Raghuvanshi,

R/o S-A 4/2A, Daulatpur,

Varanasi.

Petitioner.

Versus

1. State of U.P.

Thoughts Principal Secretary (Home),

U.P., Lucknow.

2. State of U.P.Through Principal Secretary,

Basic Education,

Lucknow (U.P.),

3. Director General (Prisons),

Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow.

Respondents.

To,

The Honble the Chief Justice and his other companion Judges of the

aforesaid court.

The humble application on behalf of above named, Petitioner, Most

Respectfully Showeth as under:

1. That this is the first Public Interest Litigation filed on behalf of the

petitioner on the subject before this Honble Court and no other writ

petition/ Public Interest Litigation has been filed with the same cause

of action.


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2. That the Petitioners organization has not received any caveat as yet

from any of the respondents. The expenditure of the petitioner is

managed by the contributions of the members of the team itself.

3. That the petitioner has no personal grudge against any one and the

purpose of filing this Public Interest Litigation is not to harm any one

with any personal motive.

4. That the Petitioner has neither personal interest in the matter nor any

grudge against anybody in filing the Public Interest Litigation. The

Petitioner organization is totally devoted to ensure the Right of the

Education of the children of the deprived class and also to monitory

the quality education to them.

5. That Petitioner organization is a human right organization working in

the area of whole of the State for the promotion, preservation and

production of human rights of the marginalized people.

6. That the Petitioner organization has also worked for the rights of the

prisoners, minorities, dalites and women.

7. That the Petitioner organization has filed Public Interest Litigation on

the rights of the prisoners who are suffering from the lack of medical

facilities.


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8. That by means of the present Public Interest Litigation, the Petitioner

is raising the issue of ensuring the Right to Education of the children

living in different prisons of Uttar Pradesh alongwith their mothers.

9. That in the Central and District Jail of Uttar Pradesh, there are women

prisoners in considerable numbers living there as convicted prisoners

or under trials with their sons and daughters.

10. That by Constitutional 86th Amendment Act, 2002, Article 21-A was

inserted in the Constitution which contains that the State shall provide

free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to

fourteen years in such manner as it may, by law, determine.

11. That by the Constitution (Eighty Sixth Amendment) Act, 2002,

Article 21A was inserted in our Constitution which says that the State

shall provided and compulsory education to all children of the age of

6-14 years, in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.

12. That by this Constitutional amendment and with the coming into

existence of Article 21A, it has been a fundamental right for the

children between the ages of 6-14 to receive compulsory education.


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13. That before this, the right to education was confined to Directive

Principles to State Policy in Part IV of the Constitution of India

contained in Article 41.

14. That Article 41 of Constitution of India says that the State shall,

within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make

effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to

public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and

disablement, and in other cases of underserved want.

15. That in consonance of the constitutional mandate, the Parliament

enacted 'The Right of Education to Free and Compulsory Education

Act, 2009 (Act No. 35 of 2009)' which received the assent of the

President of Union of India on 26.08.2009 and was published in the

gazette on 27.04.2009.

16. That Right to Education is enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 & 14 of the International

Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights.

17. That under Article 45 of the Constitution of India, it is provided that

the State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from

the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory


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education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen

years.

18. That before the 86th constitutional amendments, the Hon'ble Supreme

Court in the case of Mohini Vs. State of Karnataka and Unni

Krishnana Vs. State of A.P. had laid down that the right to education

of children may be treated as fundamental right and State should

endeavour to ensure the right to free and compulsory education for the

children from 6-14 years.

19. That in exercise of power conferred by Section 38 of the Act No. 35

of the 2009, Central Government framed rules which is known as 'The

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010'

which was published in the gazette of India on 09.04.2010.

20. That before enforcement of the Act, Right of Children to Free and

Compulsory Education Rules, 2010 was passed.

21. That Section 2 of the Act is the definition clause.

22. That Section 2(d) and 2(e) of the Act deal with disadvantaged group

and child belonging to weaker section which is extracted below :

2(d) 'child belonging to disadvantaged group' means a child

belonging to the Scheduled Caste, the Scheduled Tribe, the

socially and educationally backward class or such other group


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having disadvantage owing to social, cultural, economical,

geographical, linguistic, gender or such other factor, as may be

specified by the appropriate Government, by notification;

2(e) 'child belonging to weaker section' means a child belonging to

such parent or guardian whose annual income is lower than the

minimum limit specified by the appropriate Government, by

notification;

23. That under Chapter 3, Section 6 of the Act, the appropriate

government and the local authorities shall establish, within such area

or limits of neighborhood as may be prescribed, a school, where it is

not so established within a period of three weeks from the

commencement of this Act.

24. That under Section 7 of the Act, the Central Governments and the

State Governments shall have concurrent responsibility for providing

funds for carrying out of the provisions of this Act.

25. That in the explanation clause of Section 8(a)(ii) of the Act, it is

provided that compulsory education means obligation of the

Government to ensure compulsory admission, attendance and

completion of elementary education by every child of the age of 6-14

years.


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26. That the Section 8(b) envisages availability of the neighborhood

school as specified in Section 6.

27. That the Section 8(c) cast an obligation on the government to ensure

that child belonging to weaker section and the child belonging to

disadvantaged group are not discriminated against and prevented from

pursuing and completing elementary education on any ground.

28. That the Section 9 of the Act deals with the duties of the local

authorities and Section 9(c) says that the every local authorities shall

ensure that child belonging to weaker section and the child belonging

to disadvantaged group are not discriminated against and prevented

from pursuing and completing elementary education of any ground.

29. That Section 9(2)(g) of the Act specifies that child should be kept free

of fear, trauma and anxiety and the children should express their

views freely.

30. That Section 32 of the Act relates to the redressal of grievances and

Section 32(i) says that any person having any grievance relating to the

Right of the Child may make a written complaint to the local

authorities who shall decide the matter within a period of three

months.


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31. That under Section 31 Chapter VI of the Act, the National and the

State Commission for Protection of Child Rights shall have the power

to examine and review the safeguards for rights provided under the

Act and shall recommend measures for their effective implementation

and shall taken necessary steps.

32. That under Part V, Rule 11, it is provided that children shall not be

segregated from the other children in the Classroom nor shall their

classes be held at places and timings different from the classes held

for the other children.

33. That under Chapter VI Section 30 of the Act, the National

Commission for Protection of Child Rights, in addition to the

functions assigned to them under that Act has also to perform the

function of enquiring into the complaints relating to Childs Right to

free and compulsory education and to take necessary steps as provide

under Section 24 of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights

Act.

34. That in a meeting of Advocates and the law students held in the office

of Human Rights Law Network, it was decided to do some basic

research work for collecting data about the conditions of the children

living in different prisons of the State alongwith their mothers and

their status of education.


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35. That the meeting was held on 17.06.2013 and it was decided that a

law intern Ambrina Khan, a student of LL.M., IInd year at National

Law University, Bangalore would be responsible for collecting of the

Data and the legal research.

36. That Ambrina Khan, a law intern in the office of Human Rights Law

Network working under the guidance of Advocate Mamta Singh and

coordinator Smriti Kartikey collected the required materials and

prepared the reports on the conditions of the children living in the

prisons and their educational rights. A photocopy of the report

prepared by Ambrina Khan, a law intern and a student of LL.M. IInd

Year, N.L.U., Bangalore is being filed herewith and marked as

Annexure No. 1 to this Writ Petition.

37. That the Petitioner obtained a list of the Central Jail and District Jails

of Uttar Pradesh from the website of the Department of Prison

Administration and Reform, the list shows there are five central jails

at Naini, Varanasi, Bareilly, Agra and Fatehgarh and in addition to

this, there are 50 district jails, 1 ideal jail (Adarsh Karagar), one Nari

Bandi Niketan and two sub-jails and one juvenile home. A photocopy

of the list of the Central Jails and District Jails of Uttar Pradesh is

being filed herewith and marked as Annexure No. 2 to this Writ

Petition.


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38. That during her research, the facts about the scenario on the input in

the educational matter was also collected which is not only surprising

but shocking.

39. That there has been a rapid increase in the total proportion of children

in the 3-6 age group attending pre-school education; however there is

still a gap of 24% for 3-4 years olds and 9.5% for five years olds.

Despite overall progress in GER and NER, the GER for ST girls is

low (GER of ST girls at secondary level was 25% in 2006-07).

40. That drop-out rates continue to be high: overall elementary level

(classes I VIII)- 46%; secondary level (classes IX-XII) 60%. A

relatively large number of children are still out of school (8.1 million).

41. That in spite of improvement in learning achievements for both boys

and girls, there is scope for improvement of learning achievement at

the upper primary level.

42. That during the collection of the facts, the survey of the planning

commission in this matter was also looked into.

43. That the survey of the Planning Commission in 2004 reveals that the

child population reported to be in Adarsh Karagar, Lucknow is


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17.78% followed by Lucknow District Jail as 10.37% and Naini Jail

as 10.37%.

44. That in most of the jails, there is no centre of Angan Badi, Bal Badi,

Nursery School, Pre-primary Schools or Orcrace.

45. That in Varanasi Jail, the educated inmates initiated to educate

illiterate inmates but due to low motivation among the inmates, the

initiatives failed.

46. That in Ghazipur, authority arrange for stationery and books for

educational development of illiterate women inmates with the help

educated inmates.

47. That in Barabanki District Jail, Jan Shikshan Shansthan provided

computer education to women inmates and also provided training in

sewing and knitting trades.

48. That there is no system or arrangement of schooling for the children in

the jails and health checkup, immunization, nursing facilities are not

available for mother and child in Azamgarh, Jalunpur and Ballia

districts.


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49. That the central theme emerging from the report is that the children of

the prisons are totally deprived of their right of education which is

now a fundamental right after insertion of Article 21-A of

Constitution of India and enactment of Act of 2009.

50. That the definition Clause of the Act, 2009 also deals with the

children belonging to disadvantage group and children belonging to

weaker section and the children in the prisons are totally covered

under such definition.

51. That Section 3 of the Act provides that every child of the age of 6-14

years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a

neighbourhood schools till completion of elementary education.

52. That Section 6 of the Act, 2009 cast responsibility upon the

Government and local authority to establish schools to ensure the

educational rights of the children.

53. That the children living in the prisons alongwith their mothers are also

the part of the disadvantaged class and they derive their right of

education from the provisions of the Constitution itself and the act

made in pursuance thereof.


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59. That the children living in the prisons are neither convicted prisoners

nor under trials and only the destiny has dragged them there and they

cannot be anymore penalized and punished by stripping off their

rights of education guaranteed by the Constitution.

60. That the fact finding team and the main researcher on this project had

the limited access and resources and she could not collect the facts

about the present conditions and the number of the children living in

all the central and district jails of Uttar Pradesh but the facts collected

so far are very disturbing or depressing, so far as the right of the

children is concerned.

61. That children being the hope of future and the builder of the new India

cannot be kept illiterate for the rest of their life due to the failure of

the State or the prison authorities in performing their duties and

discharging their obligations.

62. That if the children are allowed to live without education, they would

of no use for the creative contribution to the society and they may

become criminals or law breakers for lack of education and

inculcation of social and moral values.

63. That the new session has been started from July itself and the matter is

the utmost urgency for expediting the implementation of the scheme


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B. BECAUSE, the central theme emerging from the report is that the

children of the prisons are totally deprived of their right of education

which is now a fundamental right after insertion of Article 21-A of

Constitution of India and enactment of Act of 2009.

C. BECAUSE, the definition Clause of the Act, 2009 also deals with the

children belonging to disadvantage group and children belonging to

weaker section and the children in the prisons are totally covered

under such definition.

D. BECAUSE, Section 3 of the Act provides that every child of the age

of 6-14 years shall have a right to free and compulsory education in a

neighbourhood schools till completion of elementary education.

E. BECAUSE, Section 6 of the Act, 2009 cast responsibility upon the

Government and local authority to establish schools to ensure the

educational rights of the children.

F. BECAUSE, the children living in the prisons alongwith their mothers

are also the part of the disadvantaged class and they derive their right

of education from the provisions of the Constitution itself and the act

made in pursuance thereof.


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G. BECAUSE, not making any arrangement to take the children living in

the prisons to the neighbourhood school or nearby school amounts to

failure on the part of the jail authorities and the State Government to

discharge their constitutional obligations for guaranteeing the right of

education of the children living in prisons.

H. BECAUSE, the State Government or the prison department have not

chalked out any plan to arrange the teachers in the scheme like

Shiksha Mitra under the Serva Shiksha Abhiyan to go to the prisons

and to give elementary education to the children living there.

I. BECAUSE, the State Government and the prison department have not

also made any concrete proposal to take the children from the prison

cell to the nearby schools during the class hours for ensuring their

education.

J. BECAUSE, there is no arrangement of providing free dress, shoes,

books and bags to the children living in the prisons.

K. BECAUSE, the right of education is inseparable with the right to life

in the backdrop of the recent amendment in the Constitution and no

Government can take refuse of lack of facilities and finance for

providing education to the children living in prisons alongwith their

mothers.


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L. BECAUSE, the children living in the prisons are neither convicted

prisoners nor under trials and only the destiny has dragged them there

and they cannot be anymore penalized and punished by stripping off

their rights of education guaranteed by the Constitution.

M. BECAUSE, the fact finding team and the main researcher on this

project had the limited access and resources and she could not collect

the facts about the present conditions and the number of the children

living in all the central and district jails of Uttar Pradesh but the facts

collected so far are very disturbing or depressing, so far as the right of

the children is concerned.

N. BECAUSE, children being the hope of future and the builder of the

new India cannot be kept illiterate for the rest of their life due to the

failure of the State or the prison authorities in performing their duties

and discharging their obligations.

O. BECAUSE, if the children are allowed to live without education, they

would of no use for the creative contribution to the society and they

may become criminals or law breakers for lack of education and

inculcation of social and moral values.


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*****A F F I D A V I T

IN




Petitioner.

Versus

State of U.P. & others. Respondents.

Affidavit of : Lenin Raghuvanshi,

Aged about 48 years, Son of Shri

Surendra Nath Singh,

President of Peoples Vigilance

Committee for Human Right

(PVCHR) Organization, Resident of

S-A 4/2A, Daulatpur, Varanasi.

Hindu by religion, Occupation :

Social Worker.

(Deponent)

I, the deponent above named, do hereby solemnly affirm

and state on oath as under :


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1. That the deponent is the President of the Petitioners organization in

the aforesaid writ petition and as such he is fully acquainted with the

facts of the case deposed to below.

I, the deponent above named, do hereby swear and

declare that the contents of paragraph No. 1 of this Affidavit

and those contents of paragraphs No.

of the accompanying Writ Petition are true to my personal

knowledge; those of paragraph Nos.

of the accompanying Writ Petition are based on the record of

the case; those of paragraph Nos.

of the accompanying Writ Petition are based on the information

received from

and those of paragraph Nos.

of the accompanying Writ Petition are based on legal advice,

which all I believe to be true and correct, no part of it is false

and nothing material has been concealed in it.

So help me God.

---------------------------

(Deponent)

I, Mamta Singh, Advocate, High Court, Chamber No. 122, New

Building, Allahabad, Enrollment No. UP-3088/04, do hereby declare

that the person, making this affidavit and alleging himself to be


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deponent is known to me from the papers produced by him before me

in the instant case and I am satisfied that he is the same person making

this affidavit.

---------------------------

(Advocate)

Solemnly affirmed before me on this _____ day of July,

2013 at about _____ a.m./p.m. by the deponent who has been

identified by the aforesaid Advocate.

I have satisfied myself by examining the deponent that he

understands the contents of this Affidavit fully well, which has

been read over and explained to him.

---------------------------

(Oath Commissioner)


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