Supreme Court slams UP government for not providing counselling to kids forced by teacher to slap Muslim classmate

The Supreme Court on Friday yet again took strong exception to the lackadaisical attitude of the Uttar Pradesh government in its handling of the incident in which a school teacher was seen goading students to slap a Muslim classmate of their. .A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that its directions to the State to provide counselling to all the children who were made perpetrators of the offence, has not been complied with."See the State affidavit. There has been complete breach of our directions. None of the kids have been given counselling! We had even given names of organisations. This has to be done in letter and spirit," Justice Oka remarked.."We have perused the latest TISS report which calls for counselling of all the students who had taken part in corporal punishment as participants and witnesses. Nothing has been done by the State, it is too late in the day. We direct the State to immediately implement the directions specially for the witness children," the bench noted in its order.The State government was directed to file a compliance affidavit by February 28 and the case will be heard again on March 1. .The Supreme Court was hearing a plea filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking action against school teacher Tripta Tyagi for allegedly goading students to slap a Muslim sudent. Tyagi allegedly made derogatory remarks about the Muslim student's religion and instigated classmates to beat him in a viral video. The school in Khubbapur village was sealed afterward. The teacher released a video denying any communal angle but acknowledging that she made a mistake. The plea by Tushar Gandhi has sought a time-bound and independent probe into the matter as well as measures to address violence against religious minority students..The Uttar Pradesh government had in October told the Supreme Court that the school teacher may face charges under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 295A of the IPC states that any deliberate and malicious act intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs, is a punishable offence.The Court had directed professional counselling for the student and his classmates.It had also ordered that the victim student be admitted to a new school.During earlier hearings, the Court had also taken exception to the manner in which the Uttar Pradesh Police and government were handling the probe into the case,The Court had observed that the first information report (FIR) omitted key allegations and had, therefore, directed that the probe should be headed by a senior Indian Police Services (IPS) officer nominated by the State government..Additional Advocate Garima Prashad appeared for the UP government. Advocate Shadan Farasat appeared for Gandhi.