Point of Law: Officers of State must remember that right of every citizen matters and no child can be left behind.

ORDER :

The petitioner/School Development and Monitoring Committee (‘the Committee’ for short) of the Government Lower Primary School, Agaralingana Doddi, Maddur Taluk is before this Court seeking a direction by issue of a writ in the nature of mandamus directing respondents 1, 3 and 4 to take immediate action for initiation of process of identification of land and re-building of the Government School in Agaralingana Doddi, Maddur Taluk on consideration of representation submitted by the Committee.

2. Heard Sri M.H. Prakash, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, Smt. Shwetha Krishnappa, learned Additional Government Advocate for respondents 1 to 5 and Smt. B.J. Somayaji, learned counsel appearing for respondent No.6.

3. Brief facts leading to the filing of the present petition, as borne out from the pleadings, are as follows:-

The school at Agaralingana Doddi, Maddur Taluk was established 35 years ago in a small area in the village and the present Committee is the School Development and Monitoring Committee of the Lower Primary School. As and when the strength of students would increase, the need for expanding the school with required infrastructure also increased. Many members in the Village then volunteered and donated 10 guntas of land in favour of the State only for the purpose of building the School at Agaralingana Doddi. Later the Government transferred entire records into the name of the school. The Government school then came within the jurisdiction of the Gram Panchayat as it was in the vicinity of Agaralingana Doddi Gram Panchyat. The State then constructed two rooms, a kitchen and toilet both for boys and girls in the area that was donated by the members of the village and established a new building in the said area. From 2003 upto 2018 the school was functioning in its full swing. 25 students, both boys and girls were studying in the said school from first to fifth standard.

4. In the year 2016 the National Highways Authority of India undertakes a project of widening and upgrading Bangalore – Mysore Highway, NH-275 into a ten-lane road. The land in which the school was established was also notified for acquisition as 732 sq. mts. of the school area was sought to be acquired which led to demolition of entire school building. The National Highways Authority assessed the compensation to the building as also for the land and awarded a compensation of Rs.66,95,098. On assessment of compensation present Committee then makes a representation to the 4th respondent for utilization of compensation amount for purchasing an alternative land for construction of a new school building as the amount was more than sufficient for such construction. The said communication comes about on 03-01-2020, now close to three years. The Committee and the Head Master of the School again collectively requested the 2nd respondent/Deputy Commissioner, Mandya District to take immediate action in this regard. The said representation was submitted by the Committee and the Head Master of the School on 13-01-2020, which is also three years old.

5. On 01-02-2020 the 3rd respondent/Deputy Director of Public Instructions (‘DDPI’ for short) communicated to the 4th respondent/Block Education Officer (‘BEO’ for short) to submit required documents to his office for steps to be taken for construction/reconstruction of the school building. All the documents were submitted on 28-05-2020. Again on 03-06-2020 the Committee through the Head Master represented to the 4th respondent/BEO to take alternative steps for the purpose of conducting classes in view of demolition of the school building. The Government did not identify any land in the vicinity. The members of the village again came forward by submitting a representation to the Committee for purchase of private land for the purpose of re-building the school. By then a circular was issued by the State on 10-06-2020 directing compensation amount received by the School on its demolition to be immediately deposi