The Bombay High Court has granted the Maharashtra government one week to finalise and notify its long-awaited child safety guidelines for schools, emphasizing the urgency of institutional safeguards in the wake of a sexual abuse case involving two minor girls in Badlapur last year.
A division bench comprising Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr. Neela Gokhale issued the direction on Wednesday while hearing a *suo motu* public interest litigation related to the 2023 incident, which had prompted widespread public outrage and a government commitment to overhaul school safety norms.
The court was informed that the state’s education department had already drafted a Government Resolution (GR) on school safety measures and obtained ministerial approval, with only judicial clearance pending. The GR was prepared with inputs from an 18-member expert committee constituted after the Badlapur case and overseen by advocate Rebecca Gonsalves, who was appointed amicus curiae to ensure legal and procedural compliance.
During the hearing, the bench underscored the need for regular school visits by trained counsellors and called for clear funding mechanisms. It noted that while public schools should receive government support for implementation, private schools should allocate resources from their own budgets to meet the safety standards.
Once finalised, the court allowed eight weeks for the guidelines to be implemented, taking into account the ongoing summer vacation. It also instructed the state to begin inspection and monitoring visits to ensure that all schools—government and private—adhere to the norms.
