Failure in discharging duty towards children; SC lashes out at UP govt

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has slammed 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. The apex court said that the UP government has prima facie failed to fulfill its responsibility under the Right to Education Act.

A bench of Justices 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. It asked the senior officer to submit a report before the top court.

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.”

The bench said quality education includes sensitive education and the manner in which the incident has happened should shake the conscience of the State.

“This is a very serious issue. Teachers tell students to hit a classmate because they belong to a particular community. Is this quality education? If the allegations are true, this should shock the conscience of the State,” the bench said

"It should be checked whether the incident falls under the scope of hate speech. It should be investigated whether the offense of trying to create communal rivalry was committed. It should also be seen whether the Juvenile Justice Act should be applied," the bench said.

Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, argued that the incident was being given communal colour. The court will take up the matter again on October 30.