The eight-year-old Muslim schoolboy slapped by fellow pupils for his
religion at their headmistress’s behest has been admitted to another school, with the Uttar Pradesh government swinging into action shortly after a Supreme Court rap on Friday.

“The best news today,” CPM politburo member Subhashini Ali posted on X on Saturday, breaking the news.

The boy’s father said the Muzaffarnagar district administration had arranged for the Class I student’s admission to a school in Muzaffarnagar City shortly after the apex court rapped the state government for failing to comply with orders to find a new school for him.

He said the new school was 15km from their home, but the district authorities would bear all the costs and arrange transport.

Ali posted: “The father of the boy in Muzaffarnagar who was slapped after his teacher instigated a classmate of another religion called me to say that after the SCs firing, the district administration has got him admitted into a decent school. The child went there.”

Ali and CPM Rajya Sabha member John Brittas had met the boy and his parents at their village on August 30 and offered them support, including the child’s admission to a residential school in Kerala. They also provided some financial assistance to the family but have refused to reveal the amount.

Tripta Tyagi, headmistress and owner of the Neha Public School in a Muzaffarnagar village, had on August 24 allegedly declared that “Muslim students should be beaten before being sent home… because they don’t do their homework well”. She had allegedly asked the other pupils to slap the boy.

The boy’s father withdrew him from the school on August 25 and the state education department closed the school officially after a week.

The father told reporters on Saturday afternoon that the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hindhad offered to get the boy admitted to a village school in Shahpur, near the family’s home, “but my son was not ready to go there”.

“On Friday afternoon, we went to Shardein School (in Muzaffarnagar City) along with some members of the local administration and the formalities for admission began,” he said.

“Since my son is ready to go there, we will send him to this school. It is a costly institute but the district administration has made arrangements to pay his tuition fees and other charges and provide transport.”

Ali told The Telegraph over the phone: “The child liked the school and so things are in place now. However, I want to ask why the teacher who traumatised the child has still not been arrested.”

On Friday, the apex court bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Pankaj Mithal had rapped the state government for failing to comply with orders of September 25 and November 7 asking it to provide counselling to the child and his classmates and facilitate his admission to a private school.

Tyagi has been booked under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and various sections of the Indian Penal Code for outraging religious feelings, voluntarily causing hurt and intentionally insulting someone with ulterior motives.