New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday, February 6, sought replies from the Madhya Pradesh government and others on a plea by the father of a minor boy who was rusticated from a school in Indore for allegedly circulating an objectionable meme concerning teachers.
The apex court issued notice on the petition challenging an order of November last year of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which upheld the school’s decision to terminate the 13-year-old student in the midst of his Class 9 academic session of 2024-2025.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that minors generally learn such behaviour from their surroundings and memes having communal overtones should not be encouraged.
Advocate Nipun Saxena, who appeared for the petitioner, said that the penalty imposed was wholly disproportionate to the alleged misconduct, which was not even found to have been proved against the minor boy.
Saxena said the meme account was private and was being operated by at least three children, all of whom were expelled from the school.
The bench posted the matter for hearing on February 13.
The plea said the action has caused grave prejudice to the petitioner’s son as it effectively renders it extremely difficult for him to continue his education up to Class 10 at the school.
It said registration for Class 10 is ordinarily completed during Class 9 itself according to the extant bye laws of the ICSE Board.
“The impugned decision has, therefore, severely jeopardised the continuity and stability of the petitioner’s son’s education,” the plea said.
It alleged that the entire hoax of “protecting the reputation” of the school was a red herring, since the Instagram account was not accessible either to the public or to the school administration.
“Imposition of harsh penalties such as expulsion/rustication to a child for creating an Instagram private account with memes that are not even attributable to the child and to invoke the criminal law principle of ‘deterrence’ is antithetical to the established cannons of law,” the plea said.
The petitioner had approached the high court against the school’s decision to terminate his son last year.
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