It has been reported that a girl in Delhi died after being punished in the municipal school she attended. Her name was Shanno, and she was eleven years old. Apparently, her teacher made her sit in a position imitating a chicken for two hours in the sun and piled bricks on her back. The girl is reported to have died from a lack of oxygen although the details are not clear.

Much could be said about the teacher’s lack of all good sense and humanity but words would probably do a poor job of describing it. To treat a child in such a manner especially considering that temperatures in Delhi are well over 40 degrees centigrade would require extraordinary cruelty.

The media, in its coverage, seems to have focussed on the dearth of laws to protect a child in such a situation and has spoken of the Delhi High Court and the NCPCC taking a stand against corporal punishment in schools.

It isn’t entirely clear why that should be especially relevant in a case such as this. The Indian Penal Code doesn’t have any shortage of provisions to deal with harming other persons be they children or adults: causing hurt, causing grievous hurt, assault, murder and culpable homicide, among others.

And while it is certainly not a bad idea to have some sui generis legislation in place banning the corporal punishment of children both within and outside schools, it is entirely ridiculous to imply that the absence of such legislation in any way bars awarding punishment to those guilty of assaulting a child.

Even leaving criminal law aside, erring teachers and institutions could always be sued under tort law. The principle of vicarious liability, among other things, would ensure that schools which had such teachers could also be pursued through legal channels.

True, children are often assaulted by school teachers. True, there exists no law which specifically deals with banning corporal punishment. It does not, however, automatically follow that there are no remedies available to children and their parents when teachers act in such an unconscionable manner and assault their students.