This should shock the conscience of the State: SC to UP

Apex court pulls up UP govt, says there can’t be quality education if a student is penalised over religion; orders that investigation be supervised by senior IPS officer

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government over the manner of dealing with the incident where a Muslim child was slapped by classmates on instructions of a teacher in Muzaffarnagar, and said that “there cannot be any quality of education if the student is penalised based on religion”.

A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Pankaj Mithal noting that there was a delay in the registration of the FIR and the FIR has omitted the allegations made by the victim's father regarding communal targeting, it ordered that the probe should be supervised by senior IPS officer, nominee by the State.

Tripta Tyagi, a teacher, was booked after a video showed her asking her students to slap the Std II boy

It asked the senior officer to submit a report before the top court. The apex court also observed that there is a "prima facie failure on the part of the State” to comply with the mandate of the Right to Education Act, which prohibits physical and mental harassment of students and their discrimination on the basis of religion and caste. It observed, “There cannot be any quality education if a student is sought to be penalised only on the ground that he belongs to a particular community. There is a prima facie failure on the part of the State to comply with mandatory obligations of the RTE Act and rules.”

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The bench said quality education includes sensitive education and the manner in which the incident has happened should shake the conscience of the State. The apex court also directed the State government to apprise it about what facilities it will extend to the victim of the offence under the RTE Act for his quality education as per the Act. It said the State cannot expect the child to continue in the same school. It further directed the State to ensure proper counselling is provided to the victim by a professional counsellor and also to the students who were dictated to take part in the action.

The case

A teacher, Tripta Tyagi, was booked after a video showed her asking her students to slap the Std II boy in Khubbapur village of Muzaffarnagar and also making a communal remark. The teacher was accused of making communal comments and ordering her students to slap a Muslim classmate for not doing his homework. The state Education department had also served notice to the private school.

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