Supreme Court Slams UP Govt For Not Giving Counselling To Kids Who Slap Muslim Classmate
Supreme Court today (Friday) came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh government for not giving counselling to the children who were forced to slap a Muslim classmate by a teacher. The incident occurred in August 2023 at a private school in Uttar Pradesh”s Muzaffarnagar. The video that went viral on social media showed the teacher telling the students to slap a Muslim boy, triggering protests, with the allegations that the attack was directed at the religious identity of the boy.
However, a bench of the Supreme Court, consisting Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan slammed the state government for the indifferent attitude it maintains in handling the case. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, demanding action against the teacher Tripta Tyagi. The teacher had allegedly made derogatory remarks about the boy”s religion while asking his classmates to beat him.
Referring to the government’s lacklustre attitude in the case Justice Oka said, “See the State affidavit. There has been a complete breach of our directions. None of the kids have been given counselling! We had even given names of organisations. This has to be done in letter and spirit.”
The bench further noted that the state has not obeyed its directions to provide counselling to all the students who were made to slap the student by the teacher.
“We have perused the latest TISS report which calls for counselling of all the students who had taken part in corporal punishment as participants and witnesses. Nothing has been done by the State, it is too late in the day. We direct the State to immediately implement the directions, especially for the witness children,” the Court stated. It then asked the government to file a compliance affidavit by February 28, while stating that the case would be reheard on March 1.
The Court had earlier directed the state government to provide professional counselling for the student and his classmates while ordering that the boy who was slapped be admitted to a new school.
