AGRA: In a bizarre case, a city based Christian minority education school, St. Francis Convent, has sent a defamation notice , seeking damages of Rs one crore, to a 14-year-old Muslim student, Mohd Shahzan, whose father, Sagir Ahmed, had threatened, on his behalf, to take legal recourse against the school's decision to fail him in class VIII.Sagir Ahmed had sent a legal notice to the school on April 18, on Shahzan’s behalf, after the school authorities refused to disclose the marks he had received in his final exams and the re-test. Talking to TOI Sagir, who works as a motor mechanic, said he was left with no choice except to serve a legal notice on the school, as the authorities were refusing to divulge the details of Shahzan’s marks despite repeated requests and the intervention of the education department.He said the authorities were insisting on removing Shahzan from the school’s rolls by issuing him a transfer certificate. Dubbing the school’s decision to fail his child, Sagir said this was violates of the HRD ministry’s rules that debar schools from failing children from Class I to Class VIII. He said he had approached the Joint Director Education, Agra, who had directed the school to release Shahzan’s mark but still they didn’t do it.In his legal notice to the school, Sagir has alleged that the principal had “purposely” failed his son, as he had once opposed the school’s “illegal demands” of money. Stating that there was sufficient evidence to prove the prejudice of the principal, Sagir had also enclosed a copy of the Human Resource Development Ministry’s Department of School education and Literacy circular (22 August 2014), which states that “no student shall be detained from class I to VIII”.In retaliation to the legal notice, the school has sent defamation notice to Shahzan, claiming that the allegation levelled against the school were false and frivolous and had thus lowered its goodwill and reputation. The notice demanded payment of Rs 1 crore as damages within 15 days along with interest 1% per month, failing which it threatened to launch “legal action”.The defamation notice sent to Sagir’s lawyer, HD Saxena, by the school’s advocate, Surendra Kumar Gupta, on May 6, states the provisions of the HRD Ministry’s circular “is not binding in nature nor it is the law of land” and “not enforceable against the said institution (St Francis Convent School, Ghatia Azam Khan), being minority institution based on religion”.The notice also states that “even under law the joint educational director Agra region had no authority to seek any report from my client relating to student (your client)”. The notice claims that the “academic root of Mohd Shahzan was very weak and at the request of his father Sagir Ahmed the institute issued TC to his father”.Efforts to contact school principal, Sr Santina, proved futile. Meanwhile, Dhanvan Gupta, an RTI activist, who has taken up the matter with the school, said, “we will fight for justice for Shahzan”. He said the school authorities had behaved in a “dictatorial manner” and their decision smacked of bias.