Kochi, Aug 19 The Kerala High Court on Wednesday stayed for a month, the suspension of a teacher of an aided upper primary school for framing a "wrong question" with regard to Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar in a quiz.
Justice Viju Abraham said that continued suspension of the teacher -- Guruprasad Rai K -- was not required for the proper conduct of the enquiry against him in view of the nature of allegations he was facing.
At the same time, the court said that taking into consideration the allegation against Rai, the enquiry shall continue.
"Taking into consideration the allegation raised against the petitioner (Rai), I am of the opinion that the enquiry initiated shall continue, but at the same time, I am of the view that the continued suspension of the petitioner is not required for the proper conduct of the enquiry, taking into consideration the nature of allegations raised against him.
"In the light of the above discussion, I am inclined to pass an interim order staying the operation of the order of suspension for a period of one month," Justice Abraham said and listed the matter on September 18.
In its order, the court also noted that the Additional Educational Officer (AEO) was aware of the wrong question as the question paper was sent to him by Rai, but did not raise any objection to it and distributed the question paper to the schools.
However, no action was taken against the AEO, the court noted.
The interim order came on Rai's plea challenging his suspension for listing Savarkar as the answer to the question -- "Who is the freedom fighter who received the maximum punishment at the hands of the British?"
The court on August 13 had asked the government what was the illegal act done by the teacher to warrant the suspension.
"The teacher may have had other intentions, but can he be suspended only for putting a wrong question? What is the illegal act done by him," it had asked.
The controversial question was there in one of the questionnaires prepared as part of the school-level Social Science Club Freedom Quiz 2026 conducted on August 6 for students in the Lower Primary, Upper Primary and High School sections under the Kumbla and Manjeshwar sub-districts.
The Lower Primary section questionnaire contained 15 questions and five tie-breaker questions and one among them was the controversial query that triggered widespread protests and prompted education authorities to initiate an inquiry.
Subsequently, Director General of General Education Snehil Kumar Singh suspended the teacher.
