AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Tuesday stopped a religious trust from demolishing JK High School at Bavla to make way for a temple.

The court had last month sought explanation on the sudden closure of the school from the state government, education department officials, the Jay Khodiyar Kelavani Trust that sold the school premises, as well as purchaser Shri Swaminarayan Sarvopari Siddhant Digvijay Trust. The concerned parties submitted their reply after the high court intervened on a petition filed by students of the school. The hearing took place on Tuesday before justice D H Waghela, who came down heavily on the education department and the religious trust for going ahead with the demolition of the school. While ordering the stay, the court observed that the school building was being demolished without obtaining prior permission from the authorities and the make-shift arrangement was not suitable for students to study. The court noticed that the entire exercise deprived students of their right to education.

Justice Waghela asked the counsel for the education department to find a way out so as to see that the academic career of the students does not suffer and directed the religious trust not to further demolish the building till the matter is heard finally.

During the hearing, petitioners` advocate S H Iyer informed the court that despite pendency of litigation in the high court, the religious trust began the demolition just a day before the hearing. This compelled the district education officer to send police force to protect the school building and lodge complaint against the offenders.

Further hearing in this case is on Thursday.