The Bombay high court in Goa overturned the conviction of a primary school teacher who had been sentenced to one day in jail and a fine of 1 lakh for allegedly ‘beating’ two school children with a stick and ruled that a teacher reprimanding or administering some reasonable punishment on a child in order to maintain discipline in a school would not constitute an offence.
Details of the incident:
“This incident is quite normal in a primary school. In order to discipline the students and to inculcate good habits, the teacher is bound to act accordingly and sometimes be a bit harsh,” the high court single judge bench of Bharat Deshpande, ruled.
“The students are admitted in the school for not only the purpose of teaching but also to learn other aspects of life which include discipline. The purpose of the school is not only to teach the academic subjects, but to prepare such students in all aspects of life so that in future he would be a person of good behaviour and nature,” the high court observed.
Two sisters, five and eight years old, were accused of being “beaten” by their teacher in 2014 because the younger girl continued to drink water from another student’s bottle after she had finished her own. She claims that the teacher also allegedly “beat” her sister with a ruler when she came from another class to check on her. “It seems that [the younger child] consumed water from the bottle of another student which is certainly against the discipline of the school and bound to receive complaints from parents of other students.
What did high court say?
Being a teacher, the accused is required to act appropriately in such situations. If the students are unable to comprehend the instructions and are repeatedly making such mistakes, the teacher may occasionally need to use reasonable force to maintain discipline in her own class, the court ruled. The high court also observed that owing to conflicting witness statements over whether a stick or ruler was used, the use of the stick couldn’t be conclusively established.
“As far as use of ruler or stick by the accused is concerned, the same has not been sufficiently established. Therefore, there is a serious doubt about the use of any ruler or stick by the accused on that day,” the judge said.
“Teachers are respected in society the most. They are the backbone of our education system. If the teachers are under fear of such allegations for trivial matters and more specifically while correcting children, it would be difficult for conducting schools thereby giving proper education and more specifically maintaining discipline. A civilised society needs a civilised young generation which would respect each other and would be considered as a future generation of the nation,” high court also said.
The teacher was earlier convicted by the Goa Children’s Court via an order passed back in 2019.
