Apex court raps UP govt over student slap incident

Castigating the Uttar Pradesh government for a "prima facie failure" to comply with the mandate of the Right To Education (RTE) Act, the Supreme Court on Monday directed it to immediately appoint a senior Indian Police Officer (IPS) to monitor the investigation into a case lodged against a woman teacher, who allegedly encouraged her students to slap a Muslim classmate and made communally charged remarks at a private school.

- Utkarsh Anand

The matter came to light after a video of the incident created an outrage on social media last month, and a first information report (FIR) was lodged against the teacher in Muzaffarnagar on August 25.

If the allegations are correct, the top court said, it must "shock the conscience of the state government," adding there was a "direct violation" of the child's fundamental right to get compulsory and quality education under the RTE Act.

"Unless there is an effort made to inculcate importance of constitutional values in students, there cannot be quality education.

There cannot be quality education if a student is penalised only on the ground of his or her religion. Thus, there is a prima facie failure by the state government to comply with the mandates of the RTE Act and the rules framed thereunder," held a bench of justices AS Oka and Pankaj Mithal.

Seeking report from the UP government on the implementation of the RTE Act in relation to the case, the bench further directed counselling of the victim child as well as of other children who were reportedly asked by the teacher to assault the former.

The teacher, identified as Tripta Tyagi, of Neha Public School in Khubbapur village, Muzaffarnagar, was seen in a 34-second video, directing students to slap their Muslim classmate for failing to learn multiplication tables. She also allegedly declared that children of a certain faith whose parents do not pay attention to their children should be taught a lesson. HT could not verify the authenticity of the video.