SC okays jail for punishing teachers

Teachers now ought to be extra careful, as beating up students could land them in jail. Taking serious cognisance of incidents of corporal punishment, which teachers have been meting out to erring students, the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday refused to interfere with a decision to send a Gujarat school teacher to five-day imprisonment for slapping a child who later committed suicide.

The apex court dismissed Ahmedabad school teacher Hasmukhbhai Gokaldas Shah’s
petition and held him guilty of causing hurt to the student.

A bench headed by chief justice KG Balakrishnan rejected his appeal against a Gujarat high court judgment that had reduced Shah’s sentence from 10 years imprisonment to a mere five days. Gokaldas pleaded that the conviction order be scrapped as he would lose his job. 

But the court observed the student was punished for something he had done outside the
school which did not concern his academic pursuits.

The central government’s right to free education bill proposes action against those schools and teachers which subject students to corporal punishment. If a teacher beats up a student, it will amount to professional misconduct and the teacher could lose his job. But if the school doesn’t take action against the teacher, it can be derecognised, the bill said.

In December 2000, the Delhi high court ruled that the Capital’s school children would no longer be caned or slapped by their teachers.