‘Experiments with truth’ for Yercaud HSS students
Justice RMT Teekaa Raman issued the directions on September 29, the last working day before Gandhi Jayanthi on October 2.
Madras High Court
CHENNAI: In a ‘course correction’, a group of youngsters who were involved in a clash at a school campus was made to prepare handwritten notes on Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, ‘My Experiments with Truth’, and to clean classrooms by a Madras High Court judge as conditions for granting bail.
Justice RMT Teekaa Raman issued the directions on September 29, the last working day before Gandhi Jayanthi on October 2. The students, of a private HSS in Yercaud, Salem, were accused of attacking security guards, vandalising school property, and threatening staff following a quarrel among themselves over playing songs during a school function.
From preparing handwritten notes on Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography ‘My Experiments with Truth’ to cleaning classrooms, a Madras High Court judge imposed a series of conditions while granting bail to a group of youngsters who were involved in a clash at a school campus earlier this year.
Incidentally, Justice RMT Teekaa Raman issued the directions on September 29, the last working day before Gandhi Jayanthi on October 2.
The incident happened on August 6 when some students of Class 10 and 12 of Montfort Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Yercaud, had a quarrel over playing songs during a school function. The next day, some of the injured students barged into the campus, attacked security guards, vandalised the school properties, and threatened the teachers and students.
After an FIR was registered on the basis of the complaint given by the school administration, the students moved the High Court seeking bail.
Granting bail, Justice Raman directed them to clean the classrooms, including blackboard, table, bench and floor, for a week. He also directed them to visit the school library and e-library and prepare handwritten notes on non-violence with excerpts from ‘My Experiments With Truth’.
They were also directed to prepare notes on educational schemes initiated by former chief minister K Kamraj and the dream and vision of late president Abdul Kalam. The judge also wondered if it was proper to play ‘Kuthu’ song at a school function, but left it to the school authority to decide.
