Hyderabad: Telangana High Court on Thursday, December 12, directed the state govt to appoint psychiatrists and counsellors in govt residential schools and hostels and file an additional affidavit in this regard.
The court gave the directions while hearing a PIL that charged the state with ignoring guidelines of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which, among other things, makes provisions to help reduce suicides among students.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao gave direction to the state to appoint psychiatrists and counsellors and convey the same in a compliance report by Jan 22, 2025.
The bench said this while resuming its hearing in the PIL filed by K Akhil Sri Guru Teja of Yellareddyguda in Hyderabad who brought to the notice of the court the plight of hostels in the state. NCPCR rules state that a counsellor should be there for every hostel.
While additional advocate general Mohammad Imran Khan informed the bench that they filed a compliance report in the last hearing, petitioner’s counsel Chikkudu Prabhakar said that they in turn filed a memo before the court saying the compliance was incomplete.
He said there are no counsellors in any of the hostels and the compliance report is silent on that.
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