HC notice to govt for death of student following sit-ups

Cuttack: Death of a Class IV student of a government school in Jajpur after being forced to do sit-ups as a form of punishment six months back has come under the Orissa high court The HC on Wednesday issued notices to the state govt on a PIL regarding the death of Rudra Narayan Sethi (10), a student of Surya Narayan Nodal Upper Primary School in Orali on November 21, 2023.Assistant teacher Jyotirmayee Panda had ordered Rudra and seven other students, who forgot to bring books to school, to do sit-ups. While doing the sit-ups, Rudra collapsed. He was taken to the nearby community health centre at Rasulpur. Doctors there referred him to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, where he was declared dead.Advocate Prabir Kumar Das, a Bhubaneswar-based human rights activist, filed the PIL seeking the court’s direction to enforce Section 17 (1) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, in schools citing Rudra’s death.Das contended before the court that Section 17 (1) of the Act mandates that no child shall be subjected to physical punishment or mental harassment. He further contended that Rudra’s case is not the only incident of its kind. There were allegations that seven girl students of Bapujee High School in Patnagarh were made to do sit-ups for coming late to school on April 11, 2022. In another incident, a Class V girl student of Amodi Upper Primary School in Nuapada district was made to do a hundred sit-ups for not being able to answer a question on August 31, 2023, Das alleged in the petition on the basis of media reports. Taking note of it, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Savitri Ratho posted the matter for hearing after 8 weeks and directed the state govt to file a counter affidavit by then. Following the November 21, 2023 incident, an inquiry was conducted and the block education officer submitted a report to the district education officer on November 24 last year. The report confirmed that physical punishment was enforced on the student by the teacher. Accordingly, she was placed under suspension on November 22.In his petition, Das claimed that he had met the deceased’s parents and came to know that they had not received any compensation from the state govt.

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