School to pay Rs 7 lakh to student: Madras High Court

Madurai: Charging the then District Elementary Education Officer for deliberately making a false statement to help the school management, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court directed a private school in Tirunelveli to pay a compensation of '7 lakh to a minor girl who lost her vision in the right eye owing to the inhuman act of caning by her teacher. The minor girl K Priyadarshini, daughter of a lorry driver, sustained injuries on her right eye after the teacher of the Rathish English Matric School caned her on March 1, 2012. Though her mother K Venkateswari, who represented Priyadarshini in the writ petition seeking compensation, treated her in a leading eye hospital, the girl lost her right eye sight completely.  The school management, in its counter, claimed that the girl sustained injury accidentally and hence it was not liable to pay compensation. Countering this, petitioner's counsel I Robert Chandrakumar told the court that then District Elementary Educational Officer C. Padmavathy had deliberately filed a false statement with a view to helping the management avoid payment of compensation. After examining the facts, the Justice Sasidharan observed that the educational officer made a deliberate attempt to mislead the court by filing a false affidavit.

“A mere comparison of the counter-affidavit filed by the Superintendent of Police, Tirunelveli and the counter-affidavit of the second respondent would reveal the falsity of the case pleaded by the District Elementary Education Officer,” said the Judge. He also appreciated the Madurai district SP, Vijayendra S Bidari, who was then serving in Tirunelveli district, for presenting the true version of the incident to the court.

Taking inspiration from Supreme court judgements, the court directed the management of Ratish English Matric School to pay a sum of Rs 7 lakh as compensation within two months with interest at 12 % per annum. The court also directed the state government to pay a sum of Rs 1 lakh to the girl's family and to recover the same from Padmavathy — either from her salary if she is still in service or from her pension in equal monthly instalments, if she has already retired from service.