Classrooms of sealed Rampur Public School will be opened for exams, govt tells Allahabad High court

PRAYAGRAJ: The government on Thursday informed the Allahabad High Court that classrooms of sealed Rampur Public School run by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's Jauhar Trust will be opened for internal examinations from 6 am to 3 pm on March 17 and 18. The school was on Tuesday sealed by Rampur district administration as the premises was not cleared despite the cancellation of the lease.

Taking the statement of Additional Advocate General (AAG) on record, a division bench comprising Justices S P Kesarwani and Anish Kumar Gupta directed the Rampur district administration to abide by the statement of AAG and fixed March 21 as the next date of hearing in the case. The court was hearing a petition filed by the executive committee of Jauhar Trust that sought completion of the internal examinations of students studying in the school.

The Rampur Public School is situated on the lease land of Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Shodh Sansthan. The government building of the Jauhar research institute was given to Khan's Jauhar Trust on a Rs 100 yearly lease for 99 years by the Samajwadi Party regime. A senior district administration official had on Tuesday said that notices were served to the manager of the Jauhar Trust several times asking them to vacate the school.

When the school building was not vacated, the district administration sealed the entire premises including the school on Tuesday. When the case was taken up on Thursday, AAG informed the court that Advocate General (AG) would argue this case. Since the AG is not available on Thursday, the case may be taken up on March 21, 2023, the AAG said.

On this, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that he has no objection for adjournment but the difficulty is that internal examinations of students of RPS from classes 1 to 9 and class 11 are going on, which will conclude on March 18, 2023. Therefore, till the examination is concluded, no interference be made, the petitioner said.

Reacting to it, the AAG stated before the court that he has information that classrooms required for internal examinations of students on March 17 and March 18, 2023, will be opened and no interference in the classrooms shall be caused by the district administration during the course of conduct of the examinations from 6 am to 3 pm on both days.