Today, Monday, October 30, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to immediately decide on granting sanction to prosecute a school teacher accused of instructing her students to slap a Muslim classmate for failing to complete his homework. A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal presided over the hearing.
The top court was informed that Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs, has been invoked against Tripti Tyagi, the school teacher, along with the second proviso of section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act, 2015, as per a report by PTI.
The second provision of Section 75 of the JJ Act pertains to the offense of assault or abuse upon a child, causing the minor unnecessary mental or physical suffering, by any person employed by or managing an organisation, which is entrusted with the care and protection of the child. The apex court was hearing a plea filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking a speedy investigation into the case.
Advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for Gandhi, said that the father of the child has contacted them and it has come to their notice that the victim is traumatised and does not want to meet or interact with anybody after the incident. "We see that he is traumatised and is in need of special kind of counselling. I will file an affidavit in this regard," he said, adding the child will be in need of continuous counselling, whichever school he is admitted to.
Justice Oka referred to these assertions made in the affidavit of the victim's father during the hearing. "We are putting the state to notice that we may consider appointing an expert agency for the purposes of counselling not only the victim but the other children, who were involved in the alleged incident," the bench said.
The court also asked Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government's home department, to take instructions on the availability of an expert agency like NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which can visit the victim's village and counsel him and other school children.
The counsel appearing for the Department of Education, however, said that a committee of three psychologists had been formed and it visited the child's home to examine him. "We have been informed that the child is introverted since the very beginning and therefore, the doctors have requested the child and his parents to come to the counselling centre," he said.
The court replied that it was a problem that the child was traumatised and doctors wanted him to come to the counselling centre. "Mr Nataraj, can you take instructions? Are there any institutions like NIMHANS, which play a very active role for children? Just find out we will entrust the work to them. We will appoint NIMHANS or TISS and ask them to go there and give counselling," the bench said.
After perusing another affidavit filed by the Inspector General of Police, Meerut Range, on the matter, the court said in its order, "It is stated that the investigation has been completed and government sanction for prosecution under section 295A is awaited. We direct the government to immediately take a decision on the request for grant of sanction. When it comes to the future of the victim child and his welfare, the state cannot treat this litigation as adversarial."
On September 25, the top court had observed that there could not be quality education if a student was sought to be penalised on the ground that he belongs to a particular community. It had pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government for a “shoddy probe” in the case, which took place in Muzaffarnagar earlier this year.
Voicing displeasure over the incident, the top court had directed the UP government to appoint a senior IPS officer within a week to probe the case. While directing that the IPS officer shall file a report in the apex court, it had asked the state government to conduct counselling of the alleged victim and other students involved in the incident by professional counsellors.
Muzaffarnagar Police had booked the teacher, also accused of making communal comments. A video of the incident had gone viral on social media, as per PTI.
The school was also served a notice by the state education department. The SC has now posted the matter for further hearing on November 6, saying the court will "threadbare" examine the affidavits filed by the state.
