According to NCPCR chairperson Shanta Sinha, a social networking site is a private space and students should be able to express themselves against the school system, teachers and share their grievances and problems freely.
Can a student be suspended for abusing his/her teacher on a social networking site? “Yes”, say lawyers. “No” says the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
The news from Chandigarh, where 16 standard XII students from a school were suspended for three months after one of them posted abusive comments on Facebook against a teacher and uploaded her photo, has once again brought to the fore the debate on the use of information technology, the laws governing them and the awareness among children regarding the ways they have to conduct themselves on social networking sites.
According to NCPCR chairperson Shanta Sinha, a social networking site is a private space and students should be able to express themselves against the school system, teachers and share their grievances and problems freely.
Therefore, no one can be suspended. “No student should be suspended for criticising teachers. Social networking is a new trend and we have to evolve new ethics and new norms of behaviour. Children need counselling, they cannot be penalised for airing grievances,” Sinha told DNA.
However, from the legal point of view, senior lawyer and cyber law expert Pawan Duggal said that abusing, annoying or defaming people even through social networking sites, blogs, emails etc is liable to three years imprisonment under section 66 (A) of the Information Technology (IT) Act. But he has no case law or precedent to cite. It could be due to lack of awareness among people. Duggal said that aggrieved persons usually do not report the matter to police which is why people take it for granted and make mistakes.
“The law is very clear on this: The abusers and service providers such as networking sites have a liability, since they are intermediaries,” Duggal said. According to him the freedom of speech and expression is not an absolute right but subject to certain restrictions. “It doesn’t give you the right to insult, defame, annoy or abuse. I feel the school has been very generous with students and let them off with a mild punishment,” Duggal said.
Experts say that people fall for the temptation of abusing their bosses, colleagues, teachers or friends on social networking sites, chats etc because they are not aware of laws.
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