New Delhi, February 13 The Supreme Court on Friday allowed a minor boy, suspended from a school in Indore for allegedly circulating an objectionable meme concerning teachers, to appear in the Class 10 examination, and directed the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) to issue an admit card.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the boy had already registered with the CISCE to take the examination, and if not allowed, he would lose an academic year.
"In the circumstances, we direct the CISCE to permit the petitioner's son to take the examination by issuing an Admit Card/Hall ticket. Taking into account the nature of the controversy, respondent no. 5 (the school) is at liberty to permit the petitioner's son to appear and write the examination in a separate room and not with other students.
"Further, respondent no.5/School to conduct an internal assessment for Physical Education and Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW) at the school and submit the assessment marks to respondent no.6/CISCE," the bench said.
The top court asked the school and CISCE to ensure that the boy is able to appear in the ensuing examination, scheduled to commence from February 17.
During the hearing, the bench observed orally, "Instead of reforming him, you (the school) have decided to suspend him and dissociate yourselves from him. As a school, you should have taken the responsibility to reform the child, but you suspended him simply because you said he was a bad boy."
Advocate Nipun Saxena, who appeared for the petitioner, submitted that if the court does not permit the boy to take the examination, then he would lose an academic year.
He submitted that the suspension of the boy from the school was an disproportionate punishment and instead of taking reformatory steps, the school simply disassociated him from the school.
Saxena told the court that the boy has been pursuing his studies privately at home with the help of tutors.
The counsel appearing for the school vehemently objected to any permission being granted to the boy to take the examination as he cannot be pardoned for what he has committed.
He said the school was constrained to suspend the boy due to his act and any order permitting him to take the examination would demoralise the school authorities.
The apex court had earlier 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.
The bench had observed that minors generally learn such behaviour from their surroundings and memes having communal overtones should not be encouraged.
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 bylaws 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.
"Imposing harsh penalties such as expulsion/suspension on 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.