The representatives of the commission asked the state school education department why the recommendations of the commission have so far not been implemented. In its recommendations, the commission has asked for ouster of school principal Sunirmal Chakraborty and vice principal L G Gunion and non-payment of increment to teachers who inflicted corporal punishment.

“We told the state government that the issue of corporal punishment is a serious issue and there has to be a speedy response and a whole-hearted action to the guilty so that there are no more child martyrs,” Shanta Sinha, the chairperson of the NCPCR said on Saturday in Kollkata.

Sinha, who along with other officials of the commission is visiting West Bengal to see implementation of child right schemes, stressed again that the commission wanted to take the case to a logical conclusion and also informed the state government that the action taken by it in this case is being watched everywhere in the country.

According to NCPCR representatives, the state government has told them that it is seeking legal opinion over its jurisdiction over private schools. However, the commission pointed that after a Calcutta High Court order banning corporal punishment in all government and private schools in 2004 and after the implementation of the RTE Act which strictly bans mental or physical harassment the state government has clear jurisdiction and can act against those schools. “We clearly mentioned that the state government has clear jurisdiction over private schools in the state. We await its action on this,” Sinha said.

The NCPCR has also asked Kolkata Police, which is investigating the matter, to submit the inquiry report within two weeks and also frame charges under the Juvenile Justice Act and the IPC.

In response to La Martiniere authorities’ contention that it has sent the recommendations and not the inquiry report, the commission said it is not necessary for them to answer to the school. “We are a statutory body which is answerable only to the Parliament and we are the communicating with the state government as they have to take action against implementations,” said a commission official. Being a statutory body, NCPCR can get its recommendations implemented through courts but according to the officials of the commission this would be their ‘last resort’.