The Madhya Pradesh high court June 28 ordered the state police to demolish a boundary wall they built seven days ago that blocked access to a Catholic school.
A single bench of Justice Sanjay Dwivedi also directed the police to make immediate access to St John’s Senior Secondary School with more than 2,300 students in the Damoh district of the central Indian state. The wall forced the school to start online classes.
School principal Sister Sophy Bharat said the police on June 22 night came with workers and built the boundary wall in front of the school’s main gate that prevented the students’ entry.
The students and parents, who reached the school the next day, were forced to return, unable to enter the school campus.
“We then started online classes to avoid any loss to the students,” Sister Bharat told Matters India on June 28.
The school is managed by the Servite Sisters Society under the diocese of Jabalpur. It is some 250 km northeast of Bhopal, the state capital.
The high court’s order says, “Looking to the interest of students and also of the general public, I am directing the respondents to provide an access to the school students to reach the school for a further period of 30 days.”
“In the meantime, the petitioner may also file a civil suit claiming right over the land and also move an application for injunction before the competent court and till then the respondents are directed to provide access by demolishing that portion of the boundary wall which is just in front of the school and covers the road, which would make it accessible to the commuters,” the order added.
The court wants the police to comply with the order immediately “without wasting any further time so as to avoid any loss to the students of their studies.”