No quality education if student is penalised on ground of religion: SC on UP episode

New Delhi: There cannot be any quality education if a student is sought to be penalised on the ground that he belongs to a particular community, the Supreme Court Monday said, as it pulled up the Uttar Pradesh gover nment for shoddy probe in a case where a Muslim schoolboy was allegedly slapped by his classmates on the instruction of his teacher in Muzaffarnagar.

Voicing displeasure over the incident, the top court directed the UP government to appoint a senior IPS officer within a week to probe the case.

"The teacher asked the students to beat the victim because of his religion. What kind of education is being imparted?" it said.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal, while directing that the IPS officer shall file a report in the apex court, asked the state government to conduct counselling of the victim and other students involved in the incident by professional counsellors.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking speedy investigation in the case. The top court, which perused the status report filed by the Muzaffarnagar Superintendent of Police, said it has "serious objections" to the manner in which the FIR was registered after a long delay.

It said the father of the victim has made specific allegation that his son was beaten in school due to his religious faith. It recorded in its order that if the allegation is correct, this may be the worst kind of physical punishment imparted by a teacher inasmuch as the teacher directed other students to assault the victim.

The Muzaffarnagar Police had booked the teacher accused of making communal comments. (PTI)