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The Supreme Court disapproved of the way the Uttar Pradesh Police were dealing with the student slapping case. The case involved a Muzaffarnagar school teacher who allegedly spurted students into slapping a classmate as punishment and made a communal mark. A division bench of the Supreme Court verbally observed that it had “serious objections” to the manner in which the probe was being dealt with by the UP Police. The Court pointed out the ‘Omissions’ in the FIR registered by the police.
The bench noted that the father of the student had given a statement to the police alleging that his child was beaten up at the instance of the teacher due to his religion. It questioned why this allegation was missing in the FIR. Over a “video transcript”, the court verbally remarked: “This is about quality of education. Quality education includes sensitive education. The manner in which it happened should shake the conscience of the state.” The bench said, “the state must take responsibility for the incident.”
The bench ordered the UP Government to nominate an IPs officer to probe into the case. The officer must examine whether the offence is under Sec 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code and also an offence under Juvenile Justice Act as made out in the case.
At present the FIR has been registered under Sec. 323 and 504 of the IPC which do not warrant immediate arrest of the accused.Even if arrested, there remains scope to let out the accused on bail. Besides, the court has expressed strong objection for the 2 weeks delayed registering of FIR. The U.P. Government has been directed to submit a status report to the court within 3 weeks. The apex court of the country had to make digs at the casual and irresponsible way in which a sensitive case shaking the conscience of the state is being handled.
