HC seeks list of Urdu medium schools in Mumbai

Updated on: Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Raising concerns over the high number of secondary school drop-outs from the Muslim community, the Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra government to furnish a list of state-run as well as private Urdu medium secondary schools in Mumbai.

A pision bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice R P Sondur-Baldota was hearing a PIL filed by social worker Mirza Naheed Baig challenging the closure of an Urdu medium school in south Mumbai run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

According to an affidavit filed by the civic body, there are 208 Urdu medium primary schools and 39 secondary schools of the same medium, run by BMC. While there are over one lakh students in the primary schools, the secondary schools have only around 13,000 students.

"Out of one lakh students, only 13,000 go to secondary school. Where do the others go? Do they drop out or go to some other school," Chief Justice Shah asked.

BMC counsel K K Singhvi informed the court that the remaining students might be attending the Urdu medium secondary schools run by the state government.

The court then asked the government to file an affidavit giving a list of aided and unaided Urdu medium schools run by it in Mumbai by September 19.

HC seeks list of Urdu medium schools in Mumbai

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