New Delhi | Jagran Education Desk: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government's decision to resume physical classes for schools in the national capital till all school going children are completely vaccinated against the deadly COVID-19.
A two-judge bench, which included Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla, dismissed the petition, saying there is no evidence that children are at high risk of contracting COVID-19. It also observed that "parents are willing to send their wards to schools".
"There has to be a balance. Children are losing much more by not attending schools and there is no data to show that they are at high risk. In fact, so many studies show a negative psychological impact on the children by not attending schools," it observed, as reported by Bar and Bench.
"They are not able to develop social and behavioural skills or interpersonal skills. There is nothing to show that children’s right to life is being endangered by the government order," the Delhi High Court noted.
Last month, the Delhi government had allowed schools to resume at their full strength from April 1 amid a decline in COVID-19 cases. Besides reopening schools, the Delhi government had also lifted all coronavirus-induced restrictions across the city-state.
However, a plea was filed in the High Court against the Delhi government's order. The plea, filed by Advocate Arvind Kumar Pandey, sought directions to the Delhi government to ensure that children are given a choice to attend physical classes.
The plea also contended that full offlines classes should not be resumed as vaccination for children in the age group of 4 to 12 years has not started yet. It claimed that the decision leads to the violation of the right to live with choiceand dignity guaranteed under Article 21 as the decision to expose one's life to such serious dangers should be one's own and innocent children are incapable of making such choices.