The direction issued by Kerala High Court asking the police to conduct an independent enquiry into the 'genuineness' of students admitted in all aided schools, has not been taken well by School Teachers Association here, which dubbed it as an 'insult' to the teaching community.
A division bench, comprising Justice C N Ramachandran Nair and K Surendra Mohan, gave the direction on Friday on an appeal by the Parents Teachers Association of SNV Upper Primary School, Thalikkulam, Thrissur, challenging a single
judge's dismissal of their petition.
The bench had also directed police to examine registers in schools to find out whether any 'bogus' students had been admitted.
Police should collect identification marks of students genuinely studying in those schools and conduct an independent enquiry without taking the help of Education department officials, the bench held.
Kerala School Teachers Association (KSTA) General Secretary C Usman said the order would render the Kerala Education Rules 'inactive'.
He said under the KER, the exact strength of students is submitted to the education department on the sixth working day after school teachers and Headmaster examine school records
and take attendance of students.
During an investigation, as ordered by the court earlier, police had found that only 72 students were genuinely studying in SNV Upper Primary school while the Director of Public
Instruction (DPI) had reported that around 180 students were studying in the school.
The single judge had dismissed PTA's petition, observing it had no locus standi to file such a petition seeking a directive to the government to dispose the management's appeal
Challenging this, the appeal was filed by the PTA.