Girl's death: 8 years on, Himachal Pradesh high court quashes FIR against teacher

SHIMLA: Disposing of a petition challenging the registration of FIR against a school teacher pertaining to the death of two girl students of a private school in Shimla nearly eight years back, the Himachal Pradesh High Court quashed the FIR registered on September 3, 2012. The court observed that action of the teacher appeared to be bona fide and, thus, she was entitled for benefit of exceptions.
On September 24, 2012, two schoolgirls had fallen near Nav Bahar at Kala Dhaank (cliff) in Shimla and later died at Indira Gandhi Medical College & Hospital, Shimla. On the complaint by their parents, a FIR was registered on September 30, 2012, under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code against the mathematics and class teacher (petitioner) and the principal for abetment of suicide.
‘Wrongly relegated to juvenile board’
As per the challan presented in the court, no case under Section 306 of the IPC was made out against the principal and the petitioner. However, it was concluded by the investigating officer that there was evidence on record that petitioner had slapped the girls and, thus, she had committed an offence under Section 23 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and Section 323 of the IPC, for causing unnecessary mental and physical suffering to girls by assault.
After a challan was presented, the Judicial Magistrate 1st Class (JMIC) passed an order on June 20, 2018, concluding that prima facie a case under Section 23 of 2000 Act and Section 323 of the IPC is made out against the accused (petitioner), but instead of putting notice of accusation or framing charge, the JMIC came to the conclusion that the jurisdiction to deal with the matter under Section 23 of 2000 Act is with Juvenile Justice Board and, therefore, the JMIC had directed the petitioner to appear before the Board on date mentioned in order.
The petitioner then approached HC on two counts: that the JMIC has wrongly relegated the petitioner to the Board as she is not a juvenile or child in conflict with law and the petitioner is protected from being prosecuted under Section 23 of 2000 Act and Section 323 of the IPC as no case was made out against her under these. Justice Vivek Singh Thakur in a recent judgment held that relegation of the petitioner to Juvenile Justice Board by JMIC is illegal and contrary to the law of the land.
Court said that in the present case, even if prosecution story, as mentioned in the challan, is taken to be true, then as per the case the two students of Class VI were exchanging paper-slips and were reprimanded by the teacher on the complaint of the third girl.
They were slapped twice by the class teacher to restrain them from indulging in indiscipline in the class. "From the facts brought on record in the challan, I do not find that slapping twice a student for indiscipline may be considered as an assault causing or likely to cause unnecessary mental or physical suffering to them," Justice Thakur said.