The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a Public Interest Litigation seeking mandatory biometric attendance systems in schools to eliminate fake educational facilities, directing the petitioner to approach a high court instead.
Supreme Court Refuses Direct Intervention
A bench consisting of Justices P. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe dismissed the petition, which was submitted directly to the apex court under Article 32 of the Constitution. Article 32 empowers citizens to move the Supreme Court directly for the enforcement of fundamental rights. The court clarified that it was not inclined to hear the plea, but granted the petitioner, advocate N. K. Goswami, the freedom to file the matter before the appropriate high court.
Proposed Regulations for Coaching Institutes
The petition sought directives for both the central and state governments to enforce biometric attendance tracking for school students as a mechanism to identify and dismantle non-functional “dummy” educational institutions.
In addition to biometric mandates, the lawsuit requested a statutory limit on daily coaching hours for school-age children. It further called for the establishment of a legally binding code of conduct for coaching centers, prohibiting deceptive advertising practices such as the manipulation of student success statistics and the unauthorized or misleading use of top achievers’ photographs.
