The Supreme Court on Friday slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for not following its directions to provide proper counselling to students who were allegedly asked by their school teacher to slap a Muslim boy.
A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan observed that this is a direct breach of directions by the top court.
The bench directed the state government to provide counselling to classmates of the Muslim boy who witnessed the incident and also file compliance affidavit within two weeks. The case is listed for further hearing on March 1.
The row over the incident erupted after a video of a woman teacher from a school in Muzaffarnagar district vent viral on internet. The woman was allegedly seen hurling communal slurs at the Class-2 boy and instructing other students in her class to slap him.
After the incident came to light, a petition was filed in the top court seeking a speedy investigation in the case by Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi.
In October, 2023 the bench had asked the state government to immediately decide on prosecuting the school teacher. The court had also ordered the state to appoint an expert agency like TISS to provide counselling to students and the boy.
In Novemeber, the top court had pulled up the state government for not complying with its order to appoint an agency for counselling the victim boy and his classmates.
The court had also asked the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai to make suggestions on the mode and manner in which counselling should be given to boy and his classmates.
A case was filed by the Muzaffarnagar Police against the teacher for allegedly making communal remarks against the victim boy and instructing his classmates to slap him. A notice was also issued to school by the state's education department.