The Madras High Court on Thursday directed a matriculation higher secondary school at Egmore here to appoint a retired judicial officer not below the rank of a District Judge to conduct an enquiry against a teacher in respect of complaints from students, parents and parent-teacher association within three months.
Justice K.Chandru passed the order on a petition by one Srinivas Rajan, the father of a student studying in Standard IX in Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School, seeking a direction to the Child Rights Commission to take action against Tharmen Fernandez, a teacher, for violation of child rights based on a complaint in January this year.
The petitioner alleged that the teacher used “abusive language and behaved in an intolerable manner.” In the counter, the teacher denied the allegations. He stated that an FIR was pending investigation. When the management was taking action and the court had ordered preliminary enquiry, there was no necessity to grant the petitioner's prayer. Disposing of the petition, Mr. Justice Chandru said the school itself had agreed to conduct a proper enquiry against Mr. Fernandez. Hence, it was unnecessary to direct the Child Rights Commission to enquire into the petitioner's complaint.
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Till the two enquiries were completed, the school Principal should not be shifted out of the institution. The teacher should be placed under suspension and be paid subsistence allowance, Mr. Justice Chandru said.