Legal Correspondent
Justice Mohit Kumar Shah of the Patna High Court on Wednesday admitted the writ petition filed by Abhishek Kumar, who was hit by a school bus within the premise of the D.A.V. Public School, Cantt. Road-Khagaul, Patna in the year 2006 leading to amputation of his right hand.
After the accident, the FIR was lodged in the local Police Station by the Security Guard against the Bus Driver. The school administration did not follow up the case diligently due to which the driver was granted bail. Moreover, the Petitioner was not granted any kind of compensation by the school management.
Finally, the writ petition was filed by the Petitioner in the year 2021, after 15 years of the incident. The court raised certain queries regarding maintainability of the Writ Petition against the private institution in response to which, Advocate Vishal Kumar Singh appearing on behalf of the Petitioner relied upon the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Anandi Mukta Sadguru Shree Mukta Jeevandasswami Suvarna Jaya Vs. V.R. Rudani & Ors., 1989 SCC (2) 691, in which it was held that, Mandamus is a very wide remedy which must be easily available to reach injustice wherever it is found. Technicalities should not come in the way of granting that relief under Article 226.
DAV which is the short name of Dayananda Saraswati Anglo Vedic School is a trust and management society registered under the Society Registration Act, 1860 and is running several institutions all over the country having its recognized private schools at different parts of the country. The admitted position is that the DAV school is imparting study coming under the control of the DAV society. The issue raised by the petitioner is that the school in question since is doing public duty, hence amenable to the writ jurisdiction and it is coming under the fold of Article 226 under the meaning of 'Authority'. The court after hearing the matter for sometime, admitted the same.