HC seeks city govt’s reply on a plea against weight limit on schoolbags

THE PLEA CLAIMED THAT THE FIXING OF WEIGHTS OF SCHOOL BAGS WAS ‘TOTALLY ARBITRARY’ AND WITHOUT ANY ‘SCIENTIFIC STUDY’

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has sought the response of the Delhi government on a plea challenging the government’s decision fixing the weight limit of school bags for students.

Justice C Hari Shankar also sought to know the stand of the Centre on the plea filed by Federation of Educational Publishers in India which has stated that the Delhi government’s circular instructed schools to prescribe only NCERT, SCERT and CBSE books.

The court’s order came while hearing the plea challenging the circular of the Delhi government issued on November 28 fixing the weight limit for the school bags.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra contended that the classification of fixing the weights of the school bags was “totally arbitrary” and without any “scientific study”.

The plea, filed through advocate Kumar Vaibhav and Aayushi Sharma, contended that by prescribing a fixed weight of bags and instructing schools to follow NCERT,SCERTANDCBSEBOOKS, the city government was trying to indirectly achieve a “compulsory enforcement” of NCERT books, which it is not allowed to do.

The petition claimed the circular is directing the use of a particular set of books, thereby violating of the bylaws of the CBSE. It also stated that the rights of the petitioners are being restricted. “That since the use/following of books other than NCERT and CBSE is not prohibited by CBSE by laws, there is no authority nor occasion for the respondent (Delhi government) to issue the circular,” the plea contended.

“By putting a cap on the weight of the bag and directing the schools to see that NCERT, SCERT and CBSE prescribed books are brought to the school, the Delhi government is taking the choice of the schools/students from following books of private publishers and is restricting the students to a single textbook,” the plea added. The matter would be now heard on January 9, 2019.