Delhi HC asks Delhi govt, police to file action plan on bomb threats received by schools

The Delhi High Court Monday asked the city government and police to submit an action plan to deal with bomb threats issued to schools to ensure safety and security of children, teachers, staff and all other stakeholders.

Against the backdrop of a spate of such threats, Justice Prathiba M Singh said this never used to happen earlier and asked the Delhi Police as to what steps it was taking.

The high court also asked the police to file a status report in respect of bomb threats received by Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, recently.

It also impleaded Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools as a party to the petition and said the association may also place on record its suggestions.

The high court listed the matter for further hearing on July 31.

It was hearing a plea by a parent of a child studying at DPS Mathura Road raising concern over a string of bomb threats to schools due to which parents, students and school staff were traumatised.

Petitioner Arpit Bhargava, a lawyer, said in the plea that he was aggrieved by the lackadaisical approach of the Delhi government and police in dealing with frequent bomb threat emails received in schools.

The plea said the authorities have failed to avoid recurrence of such threats leading to "extreme trauma, stress, harassment, inconvenience and fear" in the minds of all including the petitioner whose child is studying at DPS, Mathura Road, where one such threat was received on April 26, 2023.

Delhi government standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi and lawyer Arun Panwar said such bomb threats are scary.

The petitioner, represented by advocate Beenashaw N Soni, sought a detailed action plan and its implementation by the authorities.

“The action plan is in relation to deal with such repeated incidents of bomb threats in schools across Delhi and to prepare for regular evacuation drills and such other exercises to be undertaken for safety and security of children studying in schools who are ill equipped to deal with such disasters,” the plea said.

It also sought a direction to the government and police to identify the culprits, fix accountability and take action against them in a time bound manner so the regular functioning of schools is not disturbed due to such hoax bomb threats.