UP govt complies with TISS recommendations on counselling after SC rebukes over Muzaffarnagar student slapping case

New Delhi [India], March 1 : The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has complied with the recommendations made by the Tata Institute of Social Studies (TISS) on an issue relating to counselling the students who were allegedly instructed by their school teacher to slap a Muslim student in Muzaffarnagar for not doing his homework.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan took note of the compliance affidavit filed by the education department of Uttar Pradesh, which said the workshops for them would be held till April 24.
The apex court ordered, "We direct the state to file an appropriate affidavit by the end of April about the conduct of the workshops."
The top court has now posted the matter for hearing on April 15.
Earlier, the top court had come down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh government for its lackadaisical attitude for not providing counselling to the victim student, who was slapped by classmates on the instruction of the teacher.
Irked with the state government for noncompliance with its direction, the apex court had noted that its directions to provide counselling to all the children who were made perpetrators of the offence have not been complied with.
It had directed the counsel appearing for the government to counsel the children who witnessed the incident and file a compliance affidavit in two weeks.
It had asked the state government to file an affidavit by February 28 and posted the matter for hearing on March 1.
In November, while noting that no counseling had been conducted for any of the children involved in the incident, it had asked Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai to suggest the mode and manner of counseling.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking speedy investigation in the case.
A case was registered against a teacher in Muzaffarnagar who allegedly encouraged her students to slap a classmate. The purported video of the incident created outrage on social media.
The teacher, Tripta Tyagi, was booked after a video showed her asking her students to slap the Class 2 boy in Khubbapur village and also making a communal remark.
The teacher was accused of making communal comments and ordering her students to slap a Muslim classmate for not doing his homework. The state education department had also served notice to the private school.
The FIR was registered against the school teacher under Section 323 (punishment for causing voluntarily hurt), Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC).
The petition sought direction for a time-bound and independent investigation by the police and prescription of preventive and remedial measures within the school systems in relation to violence against children, including those belonging to religious minorities.