Court kicks army out of schools and educational institutions

The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to ensure that all schools and hostels of educational institutions occupied by the Army and paramilitary forces are vacated within two months.

The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to ensure that all schools and hostels of educational institutions occupied by the Army and paramilitary forces are vacated within two months. An order to this effect was passed by a bench comprising Justices B Sudarshan Reddy and S S Nijjar during the hearing of an issue relating to the trafficking of 76 children from Manipur and Assam to Tamil Nadu.

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While there was a specific direction to the Ministry of Home Affairs to ensure that the schools and hostels be
freed from the occupation of the Army and central paramilitary forces, the bench asked the HRD Ministry to list the number of schools occupied by military forces in two states.

Further, the bench asked the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) to hold meetings with seven
North Eastern states on various aspects of development. The directions were passed on the recommendations of
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which was asked by the court to inquire into the trafficking
of children from Manipur and Assam to Tamil Nadu on the pretext of providing them better education.

The bench also asked Manipur, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka to respond to the recommendation of the
NCPCR to take action and shut down unregistered charitable houses running schools and hostels.

The court had asked the NCPCR to inquire into the matter on March 31 while hearing an application based on a media report about recovery of 76 such children. The Tamil Nadu government had earlier stated that the probe by the Kanyakumari Superintendent of Police has established that the 76 children from Manipur and Assam were brought to Tamil Nadu by one Rev Paul from the north-eastern region on promise of providing them better education.