The case of a school boy being allegedly slapped by his classmates on the instruction of his teacher in Muzaffarnagar will now be probed by a senior IPS officer. The Supreme Court (SC) today, Monday, September 25 directed the Uttar Pradesh government to appoint a senior officer to look into the events that aggravated the incident.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal said that the IPS officer shall file a report in the apex court, and asked the state government to conduct counselling of the victim and other students, who were involved in the case, by appointed professional counsellors, according to PTI.
Prima facie
The court mentioned that a case of prima facie has been lodged as there was a failure on the part of the Uttar Pradesh government in complying with the provisions of the Right To Education (RTE) Act, which deals with providing quality, free and compulsory education to children up to 14 years, without any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or gender.
The incident was also termed as "serious" by the bench as they asked the state government to furnish a status report on implementation of the RTE Act in schools across the state in four weeks.
The hearing was based on the plea filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking a speedy investigation into the case.
Police to update SC
The apex court had also directed the Muzaffarnagar Superintendent of Police to submit a status report of the case. and had asked the Superintendent of Police (SP) to update the court regarding the measures taken to protect the student and his parents. The top court had also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and sought its reply today, September 25.
Previously, the accused teacher was booked by the Muzaffarnagar Police after she was accused of making communal comments and allegedly ordering her students to slap a Muslim classmate for not doing his homework, after a video went viral where she was allegedly asking students to slap the Cass II boy in Khubbabpur village. Not only that, the school was also served a notice by the state education department in connection with the matter.
