Thiruvananthapuram: The controversy over the hugging incident at the St. Thomas Central School here has been solved with the intervention Mr Shashi Tharoor MP. The school management has agreed to take back both the boy and girl students of 12th and 11th classes respectively, who were dismissed after they hugged each other on the campus on July 21.
The issue was resolved at the conciliatory talks held at the government guest house at Thycaud on Friday. Mr Tharoor wanted that the girl should be allowed to continue her studies and the boy be allowed to write his CBSE 12th board exams in March. Mr Tharoor told reporters after the two-hour talks that he was only interested in the future of the students. The girl’s transfer certificate from the earlier school will be issued on January 3 when it reopens after Christmas holidays.
Dr. Joseph Mar Thoma Metropolitan, head of the Marthoma Church, had earlier asked the school authorities to arrive at an amicable situation.
"The management asked us to drop the case filed before the Child Rights Commission. We want them to remove the derogatory comments made against my son in the case filed before the High Court,” said the boy’s father.
The girl expressed happiness that she will not lose a year. "The ordeal has been going on for more than five months now. I have to complete the technical formalities and resume my studies," she said.
Her mother thanked Mr Tharoor for his intervention. The school authorities will inform the CBSE in New Delhi about the latest developments.
Besides Mr Tharoor, the talks were attended by Rajan Varghese, secretary of Marthoma Educational Society, Sebastian T. Joseph, principal, Abraham Thomas, school governing council member, D. V. Vinodkrishna, Congress leader and the parents of the students
The boy had hugged the girl after she sang well in a western music competition.
