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In its previous order, observing that State cannot expect the child to continue in the same school, Court has asked it to make proper arrangements for providing quality education to the victim in terms of the provisions of the RTE Act.
The Supreme Court today came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh government over its delay in providing counselling to the child from Muzaffarnagar to deal with trauma caused to him after she was slapped by his classmates on instructions of their teacher.
"Is this how students are treated in your State, what is the use of expert counseling now after three months?" a bench of Justices AS Oka and Pankaj Mithal remarked.
Court further said that the government will not do anything unless ordered by the court to do it.
"No counseling of any of the children has been done. We can say TISS Mumbai will suggest the mode and manner of counselling and ask the Education Secretary to be present in next hearing virtually," the bench has added.
Earlier the bench had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to look into counselling options for the child.
Last month, the Supreme Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to nominate a Senior IPS Officer for supervising the investigation into the recent incident of a Muslim child being slapped in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh.
"We expect the State Government/senior Police Officer to submit the compliance reports on both aspects within a period of four weeks from today", Court had ordered.
The bench further noted the long delay on part of the police in registering an FIR and the fact that offences only under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 ("JJ Act”), and Sections 323 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (“IPC”) have been invoked.
A division bench of the Supreme Court had issued notice on said plea on September 6, 2023. Controversy erupted after a video of the incident went viral on social media. Notably, the accused teacher, Tripta Tyagi, had referred to the boy’s faith and asked his classmates to beat him hard.
Tyagi, the teacher concerned was booked under Sections 323 (causing hurt) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also asked the Uttar Pradesh Police to lodge a first information report (FIR) against Tyagi and sought responses from the concerned District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police.
Case Title: Tushar Gandhi vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and Ors
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