In the U.P. Muslim student slapping case, the Supreme Court has requested clarification from the state regarding the incident. The case involves a teacher allegedly slapping a Muslim student during a classroom discussion. The Supreme Court has also directed the state to proceed with the prosecution of the teacher involved.
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NEW DELHI: Today (15th April): The Supreme Court requested the Uttar Pradesh Government to provide details regarding the actions taken to prosecute a school teacher in Muzaffarnagar. The teacher allegedly instigated the classmates of a seven-year-old Muslim boy to repeatedly slap him while making communal remarks.
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In March, a Bench presided over by Justice A.S. Oka ensured that the State government sought expert assistance from organizations like HAQ, Muskan, and Childline to provide counseling to the child and his classmates following the traumatic incident.
The court addressed
State was largely adhering to its directives regarding the quality and extent of the counseling sessions. The court emphasized to the State that this effort should not merely be superficial.
READ ALSO: Supreme Court Highlights Concerns Over Muzaffarnagar Student Slapping Incident
As a result of the court’s intervention, the child was moved from the makeshift school operating out of the teacher’s home to a proper school. The State had also agreed to cover the child’s educational expenses. However, the father of the boy expressed dissatisfaction with the State’s lack of response. The court has agreed to hear the father’s petitions.
Background
The incident, which took place in August 2023, was captured in a video that went viral, showing the young student being slapped by his peers while the teacher made offensive remarks. This act of violence and the accompanying communal comments sparked widespread outrage. Following the incident, an FIR was registered against Tyagi under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those for causing voluntary hurt and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also took suo moto cognizance of the matter, issuing notices to the UP government’s chief secretary and the director general of police, and calling for a detailed report on the incident.
Right to Education Act, 2009
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE), is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21a of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child when the Act came into force on 1 April 2010.
The Act makes education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 and specifies minimum norms in elementary schools. It requires all private schools to reserve 25% of seats to children (to be reimbursed by the state as part of the public-private partnership plan). Kids are admitted in to private schools based on economic status or caste based reservations. It also prohibits all unrecognised schools from practice, and makes provisions for no donation or capitation fees and no interview of the child or parent for admission.
The Act also provides that no child shall be held back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until the completion of elementary education. There is also a provision for special training of school drop-outs to bring them up to par with students of the same age.
The RTE Act requires surveys that will monitor all neighbourhoods, identify children requiring education, and set up facilities for providing it.
The Right to Education of persons with disabilities until 18 years of age is laid down under a separate legislation – the Persons with Disabilities Act. A number of other provisions regarding improvement of school infrastructure, teacher-student ratio and faculty are made in the Act.
Education in the Indian constitution is a concurrent issue and both centre and states can legislate on the issue. The Act lays down specific responsibilities for the centre, state and local bodies for its implementation.
