Mumbai : A woman who is fighting allegations of being mentally unsound and practising black magic in the Bombay High Court has been honoured by the chief justice of the high court for topping the Masters course in Philosophy of the Mumbai University.
Justice Swatanter Kumar presented 27-year-old Setu Parikh with two gold medals during the university’s annual convocation ceremony Tuesday.
Ironically, the Bombay High Court is in the process of hearing a petition filed against the staff of the Boss School of Music, where Setu is a teacher.
In 2005, parents of two of Setu’s colleagues filed the petition that alleges that members of the school staff were mentally unsound and used black magic on their children.
On March 17, 2006, a division bench of Justice D.G. Deshpande and Justice V.K. Tahilramani ordered a mental examination of all the staff members and students of the school.
Perturbed by the order, the staff and parents of the students filed special leave petitions before the Supreme Court, which stayed the high court order.
Setu told IANS that while appearing for her examinations, she was busy fighting in court for her freedom to pursue a career of her choice. Each day she was unsure whether she would be able to appear for the next examinations.
Setu has also topped her MBA exams and was recently invited to speak at the plenary session of the Indian Social Science Congress, which had several university vice-chancellors in the audience.
“Earlier the court had directed the family counselling department of the social service branch of Mumbai police to investigate the matter. Instead, we were interrogated by the anti-trafficking cell of the social service branch,” Setu told IANS.
While conferring the awards on meritorious students, Swatanter Kumar urged them to do something constructive for the country.
“When I was making sincere efforts to do some social good, my colleagues and I were targeted,” Setu said.
The police shut down the school, which promotes alternate ways of teaching children various skills, and its four centres in 2005 – a step termed as “illegal” by Setu.
“We have also been termed prostitutes and people have alleged that the school is running a prostitution racket,” she said.
One of the staff members of the Boss School of Music, Pavithra Murali, has filed a petition seeking the arrest of over 100 people, including some police officers, for corruption and making false allegations against the schoolteachers. The case will come up for hearing Feb 14.