Making School Safety Transparent in Maharashtra
- Oct 24, 2025
The Mumbai HC on Tuesday (30.09.2025) guided the Maharashtra School Education Department to issue schools’ details in compliance with the Government Resolution on child safety for public access on its official website by 9th October. The government’s counsel directed the court that 40% of schools in Maharashtra had uploaded their information already during the hearing. The court then guided all the remaining schools to quickly submit their data to the relevant department for prompt upload.
A division bench of Justices Sandesh D Patil and Revati Mohite-Dere heard the case, which the court had started suo motu after observing media reports on the so-called sexual assault of 2 four-year-old students by a cleaning staff at a Badlapur school in Thane. On 19th September, the court showed concern about the poor execution of the safety road map under the GR, finding that 72% had not implemented safety measures, and 70% of government schools lacked CCTV cameras for student transportation.
The High Court instructed the State’s Education Department last week to build a website featuring safety data like transport safety, CCTV coverage, teacher verification, and complaint mechanisms for all private, government, unaided, and aided schools with a compliance listing. The HC pointed out that the web publication would assist authorities in taking quick action against schools that avoid following the Government Resolution.
Prajakta Shinde, the additional Public Prosecutor, on Tuesday (30.09.2025) informed the bench that the Education Department had developed the portal on 24th September (Wednesday). When the state lawyer said that the information was not still accessible to the public, the court instructed the government to make sure for public access by 9th October.
Moreover, the government noted that the Tribal Development Department and the Women and Child Development Department had adopted the GR as well. The steps are currently in progress to upload protective compliance data for children’s homes, ashrams, shalas, and residential schools. The HC planned the next hearing for 10th October as well.