Madras High Court: List hurdles in implementing rules

Chennai: The Madras high court has asked schools to list out the  major problems they perceive in the implementation of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles (Regulation and Control of School Buses) Special Rules, 2012, and  also the solutions so that the same can be put to the State government.

Passing interim orders on a batch of petitions from Tamil Nadu Nursery, Primary, Matriculation and Higher Secondary Schools Association and eight others, a Full Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice M. M. Sundresh sought the above details.

Following the death of 7-year-old Shruthi, a class two  student of Zion Matriculation school at Selaiyur, on the city’s outskirts, after she fell through a hole on the floor of her school bus and was run over by the vehicle on July 26, 2012, the State government introduced Special Rules in 2012, as per court direction.  Aggrieved over certain provisions of the Special Rules, the petitioners approached the court.  

In its order, the  Bench said counsel for petitioners do agree that  in view of the safety of school children involved and the experience gained over the last four years of its working, this was not really an adversarial litigation.

They, however, express some difficulties experienced in implementation and thus submit that if those difficulties can be attended to, there would be no reason to challenge the provisions. “It has thus been requested to the counsel for the petitioners to collectively submit the major problem in its implementation, which they perceive and the solution thereof, so that the same can be put to the State government. List before the First Bench on April 20, 2016”, the Bench said.

According to petitioners, various provisions in the rules were inconsistent with and contrary to the Motor Vehicles Act and Central Motor Vehicles Rules. Certain provisions were incapable of compliance as it could be contrary to other provisions of the Act and rules and certain provisions were without any rationale and nexus.