HC questions police presence during Maxfort take over

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought an explanation from the Delhi government and the department of education (DoE) within five days on the presence of a large number of armed police personnel during its takeover drive at two branches of Maxfort School last week.

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“It’s a children school. Why go there (school) with a police force. I don’t see any aggression on part of the department (education) and the school authorities,” Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva said.

The Delhi government’ s senior standing counsel Rahul Mehra said there was a lot of aggression from the school authorities and police presence was a ‘precautionary measure’.

The judge also took note of complaint filed by the court-appointed local commissioner that she was harassed by government officials while visiting the school to take custody of the school’s entire record.

“Why was the commissioner put to such harassment? Some action will be required against the official,” Justice Sachdeva said.

The observation came during the hearing on plea of Maxfort School challenging the lieutenant governor’s approval given to the Delhi government’ s decision to take over the institute’ s two branches at Peetampura and Rohini.

Last week, the HC had asked the government not to take any “coercive steps” in connection with the takeover of the two branches. The court also asked why the entire school premise was sealed.

The DoE’s counsel had told the court that there were allegations of forged and fabricated records having been produced by the school before it.