The Supreme Court has imposed Rs. 1 lakh cost on Kerala for repeated adjournment of the case without filing affidavit.

The bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta were considering the state’s appeal against the Kerala High Court order which had ruled in favour of CBSE schools with respect to orders passed by the state containing several clauses adversely affecting the functioning of the CBSE-affiliated schools in the state.

In December 2016, the Supreme Court had asked the state to file an affidavit clarifying the following:



How many schools have already been granted affiliation by the CBSE and are likely to be impacted by guidelines dated 7th October 2011, and whether the state government intends to enforce the guidelines even in respect of those schools which had already been granted affiliation by the CBSE;



How many schools run by the state government or aided by the state government or affiliated with the state board do not comply with the guidelines dated 7th October 2011;



The parties will make out a chart indicating the current status of the schools before us with regard to the four guidelines that have been struck down by the high court - that is, the requirement of the CBSE in respect of each of the four guidelines, the requirements as per the guidelines and whether there is compliance with the CBSE requirement or the requirement of the guidelines dated 7th October 2011;



The basis on which the guidelines have been framed by the state government.



The state went on seeking adjournments and the matter was posted in January when the bench heeded the state’s request for adjournment and gave it a last chance.

When the case came up on Friday, the bench observed: “No affidavit has been filed by the State of Kerala for the last one year and only adjournments have been sought. Today also, there is a request for adjournment for one week for filing the affidavit. We grant the adjournment subject to payment of costs of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh only) to be deposited with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within one week. The aforesaid amount shall be utilized for juvenile justice issues.”

Listing the matter after two weeks, the court asked the state not to take any precipitate action against the schools.