Madurai bench of Madras HC orders school HM to remove karuvelam

Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High court on Friday passed an order directing the headmistress (HM) of a government higher secondary school to remove the harmful weed 'seemai karuvelam (propospis julifora)' from a 2,400 square feet area as punishment for forcing a girl student to file a false sexual harassment complaint against three school teachers.

Justice S Vadiyanathan also directed the HM, Ms. Prema of SSAM Government Higher Secondary school, Tirupullani, to identity the places near the school for the removal of the trees within two weeks and inform the authority. She should bear all the costs for the removal of trees, said the court. However, if she failed to comply with the order, the government would remove the trees in those areas and deduct the expenditure from her salary, said the judge.

As the three schoolteachers of the school P Mahendran, E Shanmugha Natham and Sundramoorthy who are also the members of teachers association, informed the government officials against the HM for obtaining fake caste certificates for her children, she forced a former student of the school to file a sexual harassment complaint against the teachers. Hence the Education department transferred them out.

After two of the teachers approached the court seeking to revoke the transfer order, Justice Vadiyanathan summoned the former girl student to appear in the court. The girl confessed to the judge that the HM forced her to sign on a paper and she was not even aware what had been written on it. She signed it because the HM threatened to fail her brother studying in the same school. The police also found that another complaint filed in the name of a person was found to be fictitious one.