The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to report within a fortnight about the progress of the case involving a Muslim student who was slapped by classmates on the instruction of his teacher at a school in Muzaffarnagar.
Posting the matter for hearing on April 26, a bench of justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said, “Place the matter on April 26. In the meantime, the additional advocate general, UP shall take instructions on steps taken to prosecute the offender.”
The order came in a petition filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who approached the court last year soon after the video of the incident was widely shared last August. The petition pointed out the lackadaisical probe by the UP Police which initially sought to prosecute the teacher for minor offence of causing hurt under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It also pointed out issues of counselling owing to the psychological impact of the incident on the victim and the students involved.
The case also highlighted several aspects of non-implementation of duties cast on the state government under the Right to Education (RTE) Act of securing free, quality education to children.
Monitoring a slew of orders passed in this regard since September last year, the top court on Monday expressed satisfaction with the compliance shown by the state government in providing counselling to the affected students and the victim. In this regard, the top court had commissioned a report from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and had ensured the counselling is provided by the state in association with reputed NGOs working in this field.
“There is sufficient as regards counselling,” the bench observed as it sought a further affidavit from the state government on aspects related to implementation of RTE, etc. Advocate Shadan Farasat appearing for Gandhi, moved an application on behalf of the victim’s father seeking to be added as a party to the proceedings in the top court.
The application stated that following the orders by the court, the state had shifted the victim to Sharden Public school in Muzaffarnagar and had been paying the tuition fees and transport allowance to the father who has to travel 28 kilometres to drop and pick the boy from school.
The father informed the court that since February this year the allowance of ₹200 per month had stopped and that state had not paid the tuition fees for the new academic session, following which he was being harassed by the school. The court agreed to take up the matter on the next date.
In January this year, the top court had asked the state to ensure the amount payable to the victim’s father is released and had asked the state to enquire if some charitable organisations were willing to help the state in this regard.
Even on the issue of implementing RTE, the court had observed last September last: “What is the quality of education provided by the state under RTE Act if this is the way students are being treated.” The bench reminded the state that every student has a fundamental right to receive free and compulsory education under Article 21A and remarked, “There cannot be religious abuse in schools. If the incident is correct, this child belongs to a particular community and other students are following the mandate of the teacher to beat him. What kind of education is being imparted in the state.”
With the top court monitoring the case, the school teacher Tripta Tyagi was booked under stringent provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC).
yagi was initially not arrested as the case against her was registered under bailable offences including section 323 (causing hurt) and section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) under IPC.
The teacher was seen in the video telling children to hit their classmate “hard” and at one point was heard saying, “Maine toh declare kar diya, jitne bhi Mohammedan bachche hain, inke wahan chale jao (I have declared – all these Muslim children, go to anyone’s area)…” Later, when confronted , she doubled down on her remarks and justified her action by saying it was important to “control” students.
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