In a Public Interest Litigation filed before the Kerala High Court to direct the State to file a consolidated status report regarding the status of policy formulation, inter-departmental coordination, and curriculum development for children aged 3-6 years in compliance with a judgment dated 06-12-2021 by this Court, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. noted that the direction was issued in 2021 while stating that the draft guidelines must be finalised and issued in the public domain at the earliest.

On 06-12-2021, this Court directed the Principal Secretary to the Government, Social Justice Department, Thiruvananthapuram, to complete the process of finalising a policy for Early Childhood Care and Education and to issue guidelines under Article 162 of the Constitution within two months. Apart from the said directions, the Court clarified that the petition had been pending since 2017, and that there must be no administrative delay in issuing the guidelines. However, no guidelines had been issued to date.

The Court noted the submissions of the Principal Secretary, Women and Child Department, and the Secretary, General Education Department, stating that the draft guidelines are in progress.

Further, given that the directions were issued in 2021, the Court expressed its expectation for the draft guidelines to fructify into final guidelines and be issued in the public domain at the earliest.

The case is now listed on 02-12-2025 to report further progress.

Appearances:

For Petitioner – M/S. Leo Lukose, Enoch David Simon Joel, S. Sreedev, Rony Jose, Karol Mathews, Sebastian Alencherry, Derick Mathai Saji, Karan Scaria Abraham, Ittoop Joy Thattil

For Respondents – Thoufeek Ahamed, M. Krishna Priya, Gayathri Krishnan, V. Tekchand