On September 2, Sabra, a 24-year old resident of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, received a call from the school where her three young sons were studying. She was told to pick up her son, seven-year old Rihan Khan, early from school.
Worried, Sabra went to the school to find Rihan in distress. He told her that he had not been allowed to attend class in the morning and been kept locked up in the school’s computer lab for five hours. He alleged that he was also beaten by his class teacher.
The next day, when Sabra confronted the principal, Avneesh Kumar Sharma, he alleged that Rihan was punished for bringing non-vegetarian food to school. In a video recording of their encounter made by Sabra, Sharma made hateful and Islamophobic comments about the seven-year old. He told Sabra that all three children had been expelled.
Over the next week, Sabra waged a futile struggle to initiate proceedings against Sharma and the school. She approached the district education department, the police and the district magistrate. But no action was taken against Sharma.
Sabra then approached the Allahabad High Court. She achieved what she described to Scroll as her “first victory” on Tuesday. The High Court ordered the Amroha district magistrate to get her three sons admitted into another school within two weeks.
Viral video
In the video recording of the argument between Sabra and Sharma, the principal of the Hilton Convent School can be heard saying that he would not teach students who bring non-vegetarian food to school and “who will demolish temples after growing up”.
Sharma alleged that the seven-year old had admitted to bringing non-vegetarian food to school, and had talked about feeding it to others and “converting them to Islam”.
The principal purportedly said that he had struck the names of Rihan and his brothers off the school rolls.
Sabra can be heard in the video saying that Rihan was carrying soya biryani as his school lunch.
Sabra told Scroll that Rihan is vegetarian. “I have never packed non-vegetarian food as school tiffin for any of my sons,” she said.
After the video went viral on social media, the district magistrate ordered the district inspector of schools and the district basic education officer to investigate the matter.
A school principal Avneesh Sharma is openly accusing a little boy based on his own hatred towards the Muslim community. He is accusing a 7 yr-old Muslim boy of breaking temples and converting Hindus.
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) September 5, 2024
C'C: @dmamroha @amrohapolice pic.twitter.com/Fqxi7hXDMr
No action against principal
A three-member committee comprising the principal of the government girls inter college, Amroha, the principal of the government inter college, Amroha, and the principal of the government high school, Bachhraon, probed the incident.
On September 9, in a report submitted to the district magistrate, the committee gave a clean chit to Sharma.
According to media reports, the committee found that the video was doctored and Sabra’s sons had not been expelled from the school. It claimed that school fees for the three children had not been deposited since April.
However, the committee also found the words used by Sharma inappropriate and issued notice to him.
Sabra called the committee’s findings an “eyewash”. She refuted the claim that her children’s school fees had not been paid. “I challenge the school to publish any notice for fee payment they may have sent to us,” she said.
Scroll contacted the Amroha district administration office as well as the district inspector of schools and the district basic education officer for a copy of the committee report. Each of them refused to share it or comment on its findings.
An official in the district education department who did not wish to be named confirmed to Scroll that the committee had concluded that Sabra had fabricated the video to pressurise the school not to expel her children for non-payment of fees. The official further claimed that Sabra had withdrawn her children from the school and that they were not expelled.
Sabra, however, dismissed this argument. “You can hear what the principal said in the video about striking my children’s names off the school roll,” she told Scroll.
Had she tried to send her children back to the school? “Why would I send them back after what happened with Rihan?” she asked. “I am not going to further jeopardise the well being of my kids.”
She said that all three of her sons are scared to return to school. Rihan is especially traumatised. He was academically bright and had skipped nursery and kindergarten classes. Now, though, he is afraid of studying, she said.
Sharma is still the principal at Hilton Convent School.
According to Section 16 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, no child can be expelled from elementary school.
The school has refused to grant a transfer certificate for the children till full fees for the entire academic session up to March next year is paid, Sabra alleged. This, even though her children had allegedly been expelled mid-term.
Authorities refuse to act
Sabra claimed that she wrote to the district superintendent of police on September 4 and to the probe committee constituted by the district education department on September 6 to act against Sharma. But no action was taken against him.
She also approached the local police station but was unable to get a first information report registered against Sharma.
She further alleged that on September 10, Amroha’s superintendent of police Kunwar Anupam Singh summoned her to his office in the evening at 7:30 pm and kept her till 10 pm at night. He attempted to intimidate her and threatened her that her home would be demolished with a bulldozer if she did not settle the issue, she claimed.
Uttar Pradesh is infamous for so-called bulldozer justice – the razing of the properties, mostly belonging to Muslims, as an extrajudicial, punitive measure.
Left with no other option, Sabra and her husband decided to approach the Allahabad High Court.
Allahabad High Court intervenes
Sabra, on behalf of herself and her three sons, filed a writ petition at the High Court on September 26 on the grounds of violation of fundamental rights under Articles 14 (right to equality), 21 (protection of life and liberty) and 21A (right to education) of the Constitution. She asked for her children to be admitted to another school close to their home.
She also sought directions to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Amroha district education department to act against Sharma and the school and to her local police station to register a first information report against Sharma, the school and the teachers who allegedly assaulted Rihan. She has sought compensation from the state government for the loss of her sons’ academic progress as well.
The petition shuttled across two different benches of the court before landing before a bench of Justices Siddharth and Subhash Chandra Sharma on December 4. Uttar Pradesh’s additional advocate general opposed the plea in court, referring to the report of the district administration’s probe committee.
The bench, however, passed an order on December 17, directing the district magistrate to admit the three children into a new school affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education – the same board under which they were studying at Hilton – within two weeks. The order is stern about compliance: if the magistrate doesn’t file an affidavit of compliance with the order, he shall have to be personally present before the court on the next hearing date of January 6.
The bench noted the allegations of expulsion after bringing non-vegetarian food and reasoned that “[the children’s] right to education has been affected by the conduct of the school.”
This order now brings into question the findings of the probe committee.
Sabra’s counsel in court, advocate Omar Zamin, was happy. “This order proves that the High Court is there to protect our fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” he said.
