The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday told the Supreme Court that it will forward the charge sheet in the Muzaffarnagar student slapping case as soon as the state government accords sanction for the prosecution of the accused school teacher.
A bench, headed by Justice Abhay S. Oka, was apprised by Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad, representing the state government, that the charge sheet, which has charges under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) included, would be filed before the jurisdictional court as soon as sanction is received by the district police.
Section 295A deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), no court is empowered to take cognisance of such an offence, except with the previous government sanction.
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During the hearing, advocate Shadan Farasat, appearing for the PIL litigant, sought the court’s attention towards the application filed by the father of the victim seeking reimbursement of school fees, stationery and other expenses.
Farasat said that the father is made to run from here to there, even when the rules under the Right to Education (RTE) Act mandate the state government makes the reimbursement.
Asking the state government to respond to the application filed by the victim’s father within 2 weeks, the top court posted the matter for further hearing on May 10.
In the previous hearing, the top court had asked AAG Prashad to obtain instructions about the steps taken to prosecute the offender. Further, it had observed that the state government substantially complied with its directions regarding counselling the children involved in the incident.
The public interest litigation (PIL) filed before the Supreme Court sought a proper investigation into the incident, as a video of a primary school teacher in UP’s Muzaffarnagar instructing schoolchildren to slap their Muslim classmate, went viral on social media.
Further, the PIL filed by activist Tushar Gandhi sought directions for setting up guidelines for preventing violence against students belonging to religious minorities in schools.
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