The Supreme Court on Friday remarked that the Uttar Pradesh authorities did not act as expected to after a Muslim child was slapped by his classmates at Muzaffarnagar, allegedly at the behest of his class teacher [Tushar Gandhi vs State of Uttar Pradesh and ors].A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan was told by the counsel for the State government on Friday that the child had now been admitted by his parents to a new school that was far away, which was against norms in the Right to Education Act.The counsel for the family replied that it was left with no alternative as there were no good schools near their house."All this happens because State does not do what it was expected to do after this offence. The State should be very concerned about the manner in which this incident has happened. Therefore, we have raised other issues also regarding implementation of the Act," Justice Oka observed.The Court on Friday also asked parties to go through and suggest changes in the counselling report and recommendations prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in the wake of the incident.
The Supreme Court was hearing a plea filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking action against school teacher Tripta Tyagi for allegedly goading students to slap a Muslim pupil.
Tyagi is said to have referred to a Muslim student's religion and spoken pejoratively about Muslim children while asking his classmates to beat him hard. The video of the incident had gone viral on social media. The private school school in question in Khubbapur village was later sealed.The teacher, meanwhile, released a video statement asserting that while she may have made a mistake, there was no communal angle to the incident.
The plea by Tushar Gandhi has sought a time-bound and independent probe into the matter, as well as remedial actions to tackle violence against school children including those belonging to religious minorities.The Uttar Pradesh government had in October told the Supreme Court that the school teacher may face charges under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 295A of the IPC states that any deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs, is a punishable offence.The Court had directed professional counselling of the student and his classmates, as well as the former's admission in a new school.
During earlier hearings, the Court had also taken exception to the manner in which the Uttar Pradesh Police and government were handling the probe into the case,The Court had observed that the first information report (FIR) omitted key allegations and had, therefore, directed that the probe should be headed by a senior Indian Police Services (IPS) officer nominated by the State government.
Advocate Shadan Farasat appeared for the petitioner. Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad appeared for the Uttar Pradesh government.
TAGS: Supreme Court Uttar Pradesh Muslim child Muzaffarnagar Tushar Gandhi State government
