This sounds funny, right ? But there is a reason behind the incident. This incident occurred in Agra’s St. Francis Convent School. The school has asked this 14-year-old student Mohd Shahzan to pay Rs.1 crore as part of ‘Defamation’ charges.
Shahzan’s father Sagir Ahmed blamed the school for ‘purposely’ failing his son. Shahzan is studying in Class VIII, and the school management not even revealing this progress card even after continuous reminders. The student’s father approached State Education Department in order to get the papers rechecked. However, the school management didn’t agree to both his terms.
Student’s Father Legal Notice to School :
After all his efforts Sagir sent a legal notice to school on the behalf of his son on 18th of April. Sagir even approached Joint Director Education which ordered the school to release his son’s marks, but still the school hasn’t followed the orders.
Sagir stated that the school was insisting on removing his son from the school rolls and was going to issue a transfer certificate. He stated “this violates the HRD ministry’s rules that debar schools from failing children from Class I to Class VIII”
In the notice, Sagir stated that the principal had failed his son purposely since he had once refused to pay an amount that the school had illegally demanded from him. Sagir stated that he had enough evidence of the same. Even the copy of HRD Ministry’s rules that states “no student shall be detained from class I to VIII” was included in the notice.
Defamation Notice From School:
In return to this notice, The school’s advocate, Surendra Kumar Gupta send a defamation notice to Shahzan by claiming that the allegations made on the school were false and of no value. He claimed this incident had led to lower the reputation and goodwill of the school. The demanded to pay 1 crore with 1 percent interest per month. The amount has to be paid within 15 days, failing which, the school threatened to take ‘legal action’.
The defamation notice that was sent on the 6th of May read “the provisions of the HRD Ministry’s circular “is not binding in nature nor it is the law of land” and “not enforceable against the said institution (St Francis Convent School, Ghatia Azam Khan), being minority institution based on religion”.
It also states “even under law the joint educational director Agra region had no authority to seek any report from my client relating to student (your client)”. The notice claims that the “academic root of Mohd Shahzan was very weak and at the request of his father Sagir Ahmed the institute issued TC to his father”.
Efforts to contact Sr Santina, the principal of the school proved futile. Now they are fighting for justice for Shahzan.
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