The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the three municipal corporations and Delhi government to come up with steps to put an end to corporal punishment in schools run by them. It also made it clear that there must be "zero tolerance" in this regard.
A bench of acting chief justice BD Ahmed and justice Vibhu Bakhru said the system of students, who underwent such punishment, or their parents complaining to the principal has not worked. Most of the times the latter tends to protect the teacher or his institution.
"The municipal corporations and Delhi government is to put in place a mechanism, frame the guidelines and put it on public display in all schools," the bench ruled.
"The rules should specify who will be the authority to whom such complaints will be filed. Let it not be with the principals as they have a tendency to protect the culprit teacher," said the bench.
The directions came in response to a case where nearly 200 students of various schools run by civic agencies sent postcards to the Delhi High Court chief justice, complaining of corporal punishment.
The Delhi High Court has also ordered a detailed inquiry into the "ill-treatment of girl students" of a government school over the enforcement of the 'do-choti' or two-ponytail code after 40 students sent postcards to the HC chief justice on the issue.
{{/usCountry}}The Delhi High Court has also ordered a detailed inquiry into the "ill-treatment of girl students" of a government school over the enforcement of the 'do-choti' or two-ponytail code after 40 students sent postcards to the HC chief justice on the issue.
{{/usCountry}}"Some of the children, who sent the postcards, were girls who were beaten up in the school for not following the 'do-choti' hairstyle. Two of them were boys who by mistake used the teachers' toilet," lawyer Ashok Agarwal, who has taken up the cause of the children, told the court.