Physical punishment on children not education: Chhattisgarh High Court
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Raipur: The Chhattisgarh High Court ruled that corporal abuse cannot be seen as education, and the same is cruelty. The court said so earlier this week, dismissing a petition filed by a teacher who was charged with abetting the suicide of a 12-year-old student, The Indian Express reported.
The teacher had filed a petition in the high court, pleading to quash the chargesheet against her in the case, and a bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal was hearing the same.
The girl student of a prominent city school in Ambikapur hanged herself on February 6, and she accused the teacher, Elizabeth Jose, who is also a Catholic nun, of harassment.
The high court bench noted that the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India includes protection from mental violence. The Bench said, “Subjecting the child to corporal punishment for reforming him cannot be part of education. As noted above, it causes incalculable harm to him, in his body and mind… It is not keeping with (the) child’s dignity,” TIE quoted the judgement.
The turn incidents regarding the case goes that the accused teacher allegedly found the girl and her two classmates in the school toilet during the last period of school hours. The teacher seized their identity cards, which scared the girl, thinking that the teacher might ask her to bring her parents. This prompted to suicide, TIE reported.
The incident triggered a major row, and the teacher was arrested without delay. In April, she moved to the Chhattisgarh High Court, demanding the cancellation of her charge sheet.