'Charges Must Not be Watered Down': On Muslim Boy Slapped in School, SC Says Should Shock Conscience

Hearing the Muzaffarnagar child slapping case, the Supreme Court on Monday observed that a senior IPS officer be appointed to monitor the investigation. The top court also stated that if the allegations in the incident are true, “it should shock Uttar Pradesh’s conscience”.

The top court said that there cannot be any quality education if a student is sought to be penalised only on the grounds that he belongs to a particular community.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal directed Uttar Pradesh 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 incident. The court said that the state cannot expect the child to continue in the same school.

It said there is a prima facie case of failure on part of the Uttar Pradesh government in complying with the provisions of Right To Education 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 bench asked the state government to furnish a status report on implementation of the RTE Act in schools across the state in four weeks, while terming the incident as “serious”.

It was hearing a plea filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking speedy investigation in the case.

On September 6, the top court had directed the Muzaffarnagar Superintendent of Police to submit a status report in the case.

It had asked the SP to inform it about 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 by September 25.

A teacher of a private school in Muzaffarnagar’s Khubbapur village, Tripta Tyagi, was seen in a video making communal comments and ordering her Class 2 students to slap their Muslim classmate. Tyagi, who reportedly is also the owner of the school, was booked by Muzaffarnagar Police on Saturday.

The video, which went viral on social media and sparked massive outrage, showed Tyagi asking her students to slap the boy in a classroom at Neha Public School.

Claiming to be a “handicapped”, Tripta Tyagi said that the video has been tampered with in order to stoke tensions. She said it was wrong on her part to get a student slapped by classmates, adding that she was forced to do it as she is handicapped and was not able to stand up and reach the student who had not done his homework.

The Muzaffarnagar Police had booked the teacher. The school was also served a notice by the state education department in connection with the matter.

(With inputs from PTI)