RAIPUR: “Being small does not make a child less of a human being than a grown-up, and corporal punishment causes incalculable harm to a child,” Chhattisgarh HC said, dismissing a teacher’s plea to quash a chargesheet against her after a Class VI girl died by suicide.
“It is cruel to subject a child to physical violence in school in the name of discipline or education.Child, being a precious national resource, is to be nurtured and attended to with tenderness and care and not with cruelty,” the bench of justices Ramesh Sinha and Ravindra Kumar Agrawal said.
This observation came during the hearing of a petition filed by sister Mercy alias Elizabeth Joseph, a teacher of a prominent school in Ambikapur. The FIR, filed against her under IPC Sec 305, was based on the victim’s suicide note, where she named the teacher. The note said that sister Elizabeth had taken away ID cards of the victim and her classmates.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the teacher had no prior interaction with the deceased, as she taught only Class IV students. On the day of the incident, she had merely admonished the student and taken her ID card ‘as part of usual disciplinary procedures at the school’. The counsel emphasised that the petitioner had no intention of causing her harm and that her actions were “misinterpreted by the deceased’s overactive imagination and the influence of her peers”.
The state counsel, however, argued that from the FIR, it is apparent that the victim was uncomfortable and fell ill when she returned home from school after which she wrote the note and died by suicide.
The court said that subjecting a child to corporal punishment to reform him / her “cannot be part of education”. It dismissed the petition, noting that material on record was sufficient to proceed with charges against the petitioner.
“It is cruel to subject a child to physical violence in school in the name of discipline or education.Child, being a precious national resource, is to be nurtured and attended to with tenderness and care and not with cruelty,” the bench of justices Ramesh Sinha and Ravindra Kumar Agrawal said.
This observation came during the hearing of a petition filed by sister Mercy alias Elizabeth Joseph, a teacher of a prominent school in Ambikapur. The FIR, filed against her under IPC Sec 305, was based on the victim’s suicide note, where she named the teacher. The note said that sister Elizabeth had taken away ID cards of the victim and her classmates.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the teacher had no prior interaction with the deceased, as she taught only Class IV students. On the day of the incident, she had merely admonished the student and taken her ID card ‘as part of usual disciplinary procedures at the school’. The counsel emphasised that the petitioner had no intention of causing her harm and that her actions were “misinterpreted by the deceased’s overactive imagination and the influence of her peers”.
The state counsel, however, argued that from the FIR, it is apparent that the victim was uncomfortable and fell ill when she returned home from school after which she wrote the note and died by suicide.
The court said that subjecting a child to corporal punishment to reform him / her “cannot be part of education”. It dismissed the petition, noting that material on record was sufficient to proceed with charges against the petitioner.