PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has set aside the conviction of a school teacher who was convicted for ‘beating’ a student and while overturning the conviction and sentence handed out by Children’s Court by ruling that the prosecution failed to establish the case as also ruled that “scolding a school student for committing mistakes and even some punishment given to maintain discipline would not constitute offence.”
The High Court also noted how, corporal punishment though banned under the Goa Children’s Act, didn’t necessarily constitute a criminal offence and the Act empowered a ‘competent authority’ to deal with such incidents.
The case dates back to March 2014 when the teacher Rekha Faldesai, teaching at Government Primary School, Headland, Sada was accused of having “voluntarily caused hurt” to two minor victim girls, aged 5 years and 10 months and 8 years and 10 months, respectively, “by assaulting them by means of a stick”. The teacher was also accused of having caused ‘child abuse’ under the Goa Children’s Act for the same incident.
According to the father of the girl, the teacher beat his younger daughter because she was drinking water from another girl’s bottle after she finished the water from her own bottle. When her sister, who was in another class, heard her crying she went to see what was happening and she too was beaten with a ruler or stick on her hand.”
However, the court found that there were conflicting versions of the same incident as recounted by the witnesses.
“One thing is admitted by both these witnesses/victims that (the younger daughter) consumed water from her water bottle and thereafter she also consumed some water from the bottle of another student. Only on seeing this, accused scolded (her) and told her to bring sufficient water for herself in her water bottle. 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.
“As far as use of ruler or stick by the accused is concerned, the same has not been sufficiently established. Though claimed that they were assaulted with a stick, no such stick was found on the day of incident or when the panchanama was conducted. The investigating officer is completely silent about the visit of the school on the day of registering the offence,” the HC observed.
The HC also recorded how other teachers disclosed that no ruler or stick is used by any teacher including accused in the school. “Therefore, there is a serious doubt about the use of any ruler or stick by the accused on that particular day,” the HC said. “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. Teachers are respected in society at 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.
“Thus, the purpose of Goa Children’s Act is mainly to protect the child from any abuse including physical, psychological or otherwise, but also gives the specific procedure with regard to the institutions including schools wherein the child remains in custody of such staff or the employees of the schools, etc. In these circumstances, it is also the duty of the investigating agency i.e. the police to conduct a preliminary inquiry or direct the complainant to approach competent authority i.e. Directorate of Women’s and Child Development whenever there are allegations regarding corporal punishment and more specifically during the school hours,” the High Court said.
“If such procedure is followed, it would avoid and restrict the matters which are directly filed before the Children’s Court specifically with regard to such allegations of physical abuse by the teacher only with an intent to correct a child and to discipline,” the High Court said.
