On apex court orders, La Martiniere to take back expelled student

KOLKATA - La Martiniere For Boys student Srijan Banerjee, who was expelled from the well-known city school for not agreeing to the demands of a teacher, is to be taken back into the school soon, if possible Monday, following the intervention of the Supreme Court.

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court Friday asked the school to take Srijan back and promote him to Class 5.

The Division Bench of Justices V.S. Sirpurkar and T.S. Thakur also asked the counsel of Srijan’s father Partha Pratim Banerjee to withdraw all allegations against the school.

Banerjee’s counsel Ashok Agarwal said his client would take back the allegations.

“My son will attend school as quickly as possible, may be from next Monday,” Banerjee said.

Supriyo Dhar, secretary to the Board of governors of La Martiniere, said the apex court has asked the school to take back the child on humanitarian ground. “The school will do that. The court has also asked his father to withdraw all allegations against the school,” Dhar said. “He will not face any problem at school. Srijan will be treated as any other student,” Dhar said.

Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had ordered Oct 4 that Srijan be taken back to the school and promoted to Class 5. But the school authorities chose to appeal in the Supreme Court.

Earlier this year Sanjay Smart, one of the teachers of the school, allegedly demanded a laptop from Srijan’s parents to promote him to a higher class. Srijan’s parents had alleged that when they refused to bow down to his demands, Smart out of vengeance didn’t allow Srijan to be promoted from Class 4 to Class 5 and got him expelled citing rules and regulations.

Later, Srijan’s parents filed a police complaint against Smart and he was arrested.

The 175-year-old school landed itself into a controversy and became the focus of nationwide debate when a Class 7 student Rouvanjit Rowla hanged himself days after he was caned by the principal and mentally harassed by the three teachers.

The four were arrested Oct 4 for Rowla’s suicide Feb 12. All the four accused were bailed out the same day.

A city court last week ordered the principal and three teachers of the school be slapped with an additional charge of abetting the suicide of Rouvanjit Rawla.