Ryan official tells SC lawyers refusing to represent him

He added that the lawyers from Delhi were physically prevented from appearing for the accused in Gurgaon court, and that this amounted to violation of the right to a fair trial.

The administrator of Gurgaon-based Ryan International School, where a seven-year-old student was found murdered last week, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking transfer of the criminal case against him from Haryana to Delhi.

Francis Thomas, who is the North Zone administrator of the school, contended that lawyers in Gurgaon and nearby Sohna were refusing to represent him and the other accused in the case.

Senior counsel K T S Tulsi, who represented Thomas, said the district Bar Associations of the two places had passed a resolution on September 9 not to take up the cases of the accused in this matter.

He added that the lawyers from Delhi were physically prevented from appearing for the accused in Gurgaon court, and that this amounted to violation of the right to a fair trial.

Thomas was arrested on September 10, two days after the child was found dead in the school washroom. The matter will now be taken up on September 18. Earlier this week, the child’s father had moved the court seeking a CBI probe into the matter, and requested it to issue guidelines on children’s safety in schools across the country.