The Supreme Court has banned the renting out of school property and its misuse under various pretexts in the name of income.
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The Supreme Court has banned the leasing of government school property and its misuse under various pretexts in the name of income.
A bench of Supreme Court Justices Sharanga Subedi and Balkrishna Dhakal on Wednesday ordered the school and the rural municipality not to use the school property in the name of management as the property of the government school is government property. The Supreme Court's order came while delivering its verdict on the property dispute of Prabha Higher Secondary School in Chauri Deurali Rural Municipality of Kavre district.
The dispute came to the Supreme Court after the rural municipality signed an agreement in 2076 Paush to lease the land of Prabha Secondary School to the Agricultural Produce Center. The court has overturned the decision of the rural municipality regarding the school land. The court has ordered that the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority can investigate the matter.
Senior advocates Ekraj Bhandari, Chandrakant Gyawali and advocates Anantaraj Luintel, Bikash Bhattarai and Bishal Thapa argued on behalf of the writ petitioner, demanding action against those who misused the school's property. The full text of the verdict is yet to be released.
Former Prabha Secondary School Executive Committee Chairman Bhalaraj Giri and locals had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court six years ago over an agreement to lease one ropani of land at Prabha Secondary School to an agricultural produce center.
Although the petitioners had filed a petition with the Authority demanding to stop the misuse of the school's land, the petitioners had approached the Supreme Court after no action was taken on their petition No. 036551 dated 23 Ashad 2077 registered with the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
The writ petition also mentions that the school management and the District Education Office had tried to divide the land into lots and negotiate a contract, but when the contract could not be negotiated, they had corruptly negotiated a contract to lease the land to the agricultural produce center in collusion with the school and the village council.
