New Delhi: Make handwritten notes on Gandhi’s non-violence principles, A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s vision, and clean classrooms — that’s what the Madras High Court ordered four people accused of rioting and damaging property in a Tamil Nadu school to do last week.
While granting anticipatory bail to the accused on 29 September, Justice R.M.T Teekaa Raman ordered petitioners to “clean and keep the classrooms (not less than 4 class rooms for each person) clean including black board, table, bench and the floor for a week”. They were also asked to “spend time in the school library and e-library to prepare notes by handwritten (not less than four pages) on non-violation from excerpts of Mahatma Gandhi, educational schemes promoted by the former Chief Minister Mr. K. Kamraj, and dream and vision of Dr. Abdul Kalam”.
Significantly, the petitioners — Selva Muthukumar, G.Greatwin P. Rayen, Muthupattan and P. Raja Shankar — were charged with provisions related to rioting and damage to property, over a dispute at a school in Yercaud, Tamil Nadu, in August. They were part of a group of 13 suspects in the case.
In its order, the Madras HC said the accused must hand over their notes to the school principal “with a direction to the school principal to host the said articles in the school website for one year”.
It further said that the petitioners should not “make cut-copy-paste from Google” and also ordered them to deposit an amount of Rs 2,000 to the school’s account before 10 October.
The school principal has been asked to report the compliance of these conditions to the court.
Dispute over a song
According to the prosecution, the incident dates back to 6 August, during a retreat function at the Montfort Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Yercaud. The court order speaks of a “rivalry” between the students of Class 10 and 12 over whose song gets to be played first.
“In the said incident, there was a push and pull. The 12th standard students trespassed into the hostel area of the 10th standard and had a wordy quarrel,” the order said. The school authorities then asked parents of the students who indulged in the clash to take them back home.
According to the order, a day later, at about 9:25 am, the accused, in retaliation, “entered into the school without getting permission and assaulted the watchman and entered the classroom while the class was going on”.
“Students and teachers suffered injuries and the school properties were damaged,” the order said. According to the prosecution submission quoted in the court order, out of the 13 accused, two are cousins of the injured students, and the others are his friends “who (are) alleged to have entered and damaged the school office and uttered obscene words and misbehaved with the girl students therein”.
All 13 were charged under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 447 (criminal trespass), 294(b) (obscene acts and songs), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code, along with Section 3 (punishment for committing mischief in respect of property) of the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act 1992.
It is unclear whether any of these accused were students in the school.
‘Online education has failed’
In the order, the court spoke about the school being a place for “transformation of personality traits and for reformation via love and discipline”.
“Education is a platform for acquisition of knowledge, as knowledge is power,” it observed. The court also spoke of the concept of “uniform, as, dress code” and how former Tamil Nadu chief minister K. Kamraj “took education to the masses and rendered unparalleled educational services”.
“Forget not, He, the great leader, had no formal education, due to family circumstances,” the order said, adding: “It appears that ‘online education’ has failed, in all front, to inculcate ‘value based education’, which is a hallmark for human evolution”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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