La Martiniere in legal tangle
It was possibly the worst day for the city's premiere educational institute La Martiniere school for Boys. The principal and three other teachers of La Martiniere School for Boys were arrested this morning in connection with the death of a 13-year-old student Rouvanjit Rawla, and later granted bail by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R Chakraborty against personal bonds of Rs 500 each.
In another case in Calcutta High Court, a division bench overturned an earlier single bench order and censored the school for committing a "clear breach of public duty in the matter of imparting education by one of the most premiere education institutes of the city".
The school has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this year. On October 7, the Archbishop of Church of North India is scheduled to visit the city. The recent developments around the school have become a cause for concern for the Church authority.
On February 12 this year, Rouvanjit, a student of class VIII of the school committed suicide allegedly after being caned by the principal.
His father Ajay Rawla had filed a complaint against the school principal and teachers for subjecting his son to corporal punishment.
Another class IV student Srijan Banerjee's father Parthapratim Banerjee lodged a complaint before police saying that the class teacher of his son had been demanding a laptop for promoting him to the next class.
According to the complainant, the teacher had sent SMS to him demanding laptop. He alleged that his son Srijan was being harassed and subjected to mental torture by his class teacher. Srijan was not promoted to the next class for two consecutive academic sessions.
The teacher, Sanjay Smart, was arrested on the basis of this complaint and after a few days of confinement was released on bail. But Parthapratim moved high court against the school authority on the ground that by denying promotion to higher class for two consecutive years, the school had violated the Right to Information Act.
A single bench heard this case and rejected it on the ground that it would not be applicable. Today, the division bench passed an order upholding the right of the student up to class VIII without any break and ordered the school to promote Srijan immediately to class V.
Appearing on behalf of the ICSE, the governing body of the school curriculum, advocate Sanjay K Bait admitted before the court today that the ICSE examination regulation was not fulfilled by La Martiniere for Boys in assessing the student's performances for the academic session concerned. The division bench said, "There was extraneous consideration and pressure put on the child by way of certain demands made by the teacher."