Bombay High Court appoints 3-member committee to examine, curb malpractices in Maharashtra Education Department

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court last week constituted a committee to ensure that there are no malpractices in the Education Department of the Maharashtra government [Brijmohan Mishra vs State of Maharashtra].A Bench of Justices Ramesh Dhanuka and Sanjay Mehare appointed the three-member committee in light of practice of showing inflated student strength so as to appoint more teachers in aided and private schools.The committee was directed to call for suggestions from all stakeholders and submit a report to the Court by the end of July this year recommending remedial measures. The committee will be headed by former Bombay High Court judge, Justice PV Hardas and include Aditi Ekbote, a scientist at NIC-Pune and advocate A B Girase as other members. "The Committee is requested to call for the suggestions from the stakeholders including the managements running various schools, parents and teachers, social workers, some of the officers of the Education Department and representatives of the NGOs and submit a report recommending the remedial measures to be taken in the future to curb such alleged malpractices in the Education Department, so as to stop any further diversion of public money by such alleged fraudulent activities," the High Court stated. .The Bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Brijmohan Mishra highlighting the fact that as per the records of the State government, a large number of students were admitted to various aided schools and large number of teachers and other staff were appointed by such schools in order to maintain the student-teacher ratio.However, the plea alleged that the number of students admitted to various schools were actually inflated in connivance with some of the officers of the State, and crores of public money is diverted by such fraudulent means under the guise of providing grant-in-aid and facilities. The State government filed an affidavit to the plea, stating that it has spent over ₹6.35 crores since 2012 under the grant-in-aid policy. It added that it has launched an enquiry into the issue and steps have been initiated to recover the amounts from several schools and officials indulging in such serious malpractice.The affidavit stated that from 2020 onwards, the State directed all the schools to link the Aadhar of students with that of the local civic bodies and in the process found several bogus Aadhar numbers in its enquiry. Orders have been issued to all authorities to ensure that students enroll themselves on the state-run SARAL Pranali app so that the data is monitored properly, the affidavit mentioned..Advocate Sachin Deshmukh representing Mishra told the Court that had these steps been taken at least 20 years ago, the State exchequer would not have had to suffer such huge losses.The Bench, after examined the affidavit, opined that not much has been done by the state."In our view, these steps, though belatedly taken by the Education Department to control such malpractices are not sufficient. This Court has to go to the root of the matter and to find out why such malpractices were allowed to be practiced in the last two decades. The culprits who are benefited of said malpractice by diverting the public money by inflating the number of students in various aided schools should be penalized by anappropriate action ... the action taken by the State Government is not even to the extent of 5 per cent," the order said..The matter will be heard next on August 1, 2022. .Advocate Sachin Deshmukh appeared for the PIL-petitioner. Additional Government Pleader AR Kale represented the State Education Department..[Read Order]