Madras High Court Grants Anticipatory Bail To Students Booked For Violence In School, Asks Them To Make Hand-Written Notes On Non-Violence

Justice RMT Teeka Raman specifically directed the students to not prepare the articles using copy-paste from Google and asked the articles to be handed over to the School Principal of Montfort Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Yercaud who shall then host the articles on the school website for one year.

The court was hearing a plea by a group of students who were apprehending arrest for the offenses punishable under Section 147, 148, 447, 294(b), 323, 324 of IPC along with Section 3(2) of the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act for rioting, criminal trespass, hurt, obscenity and for damaging public property. The court was informed that in connection with a rivalry incident between students of 12^th standard and 10^th standard in Montfort Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Yercaud regarding whose song had to be played in the school festival, the 12^th standard students had attacked the 10^th standard students which resulted in a clash. After this incident, one of the injured persons, along with some others, entered and ransacked the school.

Noting that school was a situs for the transformation of personality, the court noted that the online education had failed to inculcate value-based education. The court also added that the interface between teachers and students was supreme over any other method of learning.

“School is situs for transformation of personality traits and for reformation via love and disciple. Education is a platform for acquisition of knowledge, as knowledge is power. The concept of "uniform, as, dress code", noval idea as envisaged by Thiru K.Kamraj, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu was aimed at exclusion of exclusivity of economical variation amongst students; who took the education to the masses and rendered unparalleled educational services. Forget not, He, the great leader had no formal education, due to family circumstances. It appears that "on-line education" has failed, in all front, to incalculate “value based education”, which is a hallmark for human evolution,” the court said.

The court was, however, inclined to grant pre-arrest bail to the petitioners and thus, directed them to appear before the headmaster of the school and execute a bond for the sum of Rs.1000 and to deposit a sum of Rs. 2000 each to the school account.

Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.A.Ramesh, Senior Counsel For Mr.S.Rajkumar, Mr.C.Iyyapparaj

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr.Leonard Arul Joseph Selvam Government Advocate (Crl.Side)

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 299

Case Title: Selva Muthukumar and Others v State

Case No: Crl.O.P.Nos.21967 and 20576 of 2023