NEW DELHI: it has been more than a month since a government school teacher had instructed the students to slap a Muslim boy and also casted racist comments on the student. The Supreme Court on Monday 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.
Following this incident, the top court was informed that section 295A of 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 second proviso of section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act, 2015 (JJ Act).
The second proviso of section 75 of the JJ Act states that any offence, assault or abuse that is inflicted upon a child which causes any minor or even 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.
A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal, after reading the affidavit filed by the Inspector General of Police of Meerut Range 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 decision on the request for grant of sanction.” The council had also sent in three psychologists to the house of the boy to learn about his behaviour where they found that the child was extremely introvert. The bench added “We have been informed that the child is introvert since the very beginning and therefore the doctors have requested the child and his parents to come to the counselling centre.”
The incident gathered the attention of many people where a Muslim schoolboy was harassed and was allegedly slapped by his classmates on the instruction of his teacher in Muzaffarnagar. 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. The teacher was booked after a video showed her purportedly asking students to slap the Class 2 boy in Khubbapur village and also making a communal remark. Following the incident, the school was also issued a notice by the state education department.
