HC orders Vidarbha schools to reopen on June 30

Court restores the June 30 date

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has directed Maharashtra’s education department to reopen schools in Vidarbha only from June 30, restoring the later date for the region and rejecting reopening plans for June 15 and June 22.

The order came on June 10 in a case filed by Maharashtra Rajya Prathamik Shikshan Samiti. The bench, comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode, said the department must act in line with the government resolution cited in the case and warned that any future move contrary to the judgment could trigger contempt proceedings.

The ruling is a significant reset for school calendars in Vidarbha, where reopening dates have been at the center of a running dispute between the state and local education groups.

How the dispute developed

Earlier reporting showed the court had already questioned the state’s plan to reopen Vidarbha schools on June 15 and had asked the government to respond by June 9. The later order effectively settled that dispute by restoring June 30 as the reopening date.

The core of the case was whether the education department could impose a schedule that local petitioners said did not reflect the region’s climate conditions. According to the reporting, the bench accepted that the earlier government resolution remained the controlling date for Vidarbha schools.

The case was brought by Maharashtra Rajya Prathamik Shikshan Samiti, including leaders Vijay D Kombey and Liladhar Thakre. Their challenge focused on the state’s attempt to move the region to an earlier reopening schedule.

Heat and regional context

Vidarbha has long been treated differently from the rest of Maharashtra on school reopening because of extreme early-summer heat. The reporting around the case said parts of the region were facing temperatures above 40°C, which intensified concern about student health and heat exposure.

That climate context was central to the challenge. Petitioners argued that a uniform reopening date for the whole state did not fairly account for conditions in Vidarbha, where summer heat can remain severe well into June.

The bench’s order also reflects earlier legal history on the same issue. Reporting said the court relied on a 2007 Nagpur bench ruling in Citizen Forum Maharashtra v State of Maharashtra, which had found a uniform statewide reopening date arbitrary for Vidarbha.

What the court said

The June 10 order did more than restore a date on the calendar. It also gave the education department a clear warning that future violations could invite contempt proceedings.

That warning matters because reopening dates are operational decisions for thousands of schools and officials across the region. Any mismatch between the court’s order and a department circular could quickly create compliance problems for school managements.

The ruling also rejected the state’s earlier June 15 and June 22 positions, leaving June 30 as the only reopening date supported by the court order in the reporting reviewed for this story.

Pressure on CBSE schools

The order is already drawing demands that CBSE-affiliated schools in Vidarbha also comply with the same June 30 schedule. Follow-up reporting said teachers’ associations and political leaders are pressing for that outcome.

Local groups argue that the court’s direction should apply across school boards, not only to state-run schools. The concern is that some CBSE schools had already resumed classes or were planning to reopen on June 15 despite the heat.

That has created a second layer of uncertainty: even after the court’s ruling, schools affiliated to different boards may not all move in lockstep unless the education department or other authorities issue further guidance.

What happens next

The immediate next step is whether the Maharashtra education department issues a fresh circular implementing the June 30 order.

It is also unclear whether CBSE schools in the region will be explicitly named in enforcement guidance, or whether the court’s ruling alone will be enough to bring them into compliance.

If schools reopen before June 30 despite the order, the bench has already signaled that contempt action could follow. For now, the legal position reported publicly is that Vidarbha schools are to reopen only from June 30.

The broader dispute is now likely to turn from the courtroom to enforcement: whether the state follows the ruling quickly, and whether individual schools in Vidarbha, including CBSE institutions, align their calendars to match it.