Jailed for corporal punishment,govt school teacher freed for good conduct

The sessions judge modified the earlier verdict of the lower court. While deciding that the teacher,P C Gupta (now 65),was rightly held guilty,Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pratibha Rani said there was no reason to deny him the relief of probation,considering the defendant had faced a protracted trial for 12 years. He was also no more in service,and hence not in a position to repeat the offence,the court noted.

“While on the one hand,the act of the appellant needs to be condemned and he has been rightly convicted by the trial court,I find that the sentence awarded by the court is disproportionate to the nature of the offence committed. There was no aggravating circumstance for imposing a sentence of imprisonment on him while denying the benefit of probation,” ASJ Rani held.

The lower court magistrate had,in his order in March 2007,thrown out the leniency plea of Gupta,holding that the incident was a clear case of atrocity against a helpless student and that he deserved no mercy after “dishonouring” the dignity of the boy.

The incident had taken place on September 25,1997,in Rana Partap Bagh Senior Secondary School. The student in question had been pulled up earlier in the day for not wearing the proper school uniform and had been made to stand outside the class. Later,he and his friends went for a dip in the school tank,where Gupta caught them.

Upon seeing Gupta,everyone fled the spot except the boy. Gupta then dragged him to his office naked and beat him up. He was then paraded naked for three hours in the school.

After the charges were proved,Gupta was convicted for causing hurt and using criminal force to dishonour a person.

After obtaining bail from the magistrate to file an appeal,Gupta approached the sessions court. He contended that the punishment was too strict,keeping in mind the fact he was now a senior citizen and that he had been deprived of post-retirement benefits as a result of the case.

While ASJ Rani found no substance in his contention regarding the grounds of conviction — the boy had clearly spelt out the charges against him in the court — she accepted his leniency plea against imprisonment.

P S Sharda,who represented the boy throughout the trial free of charge,told Newsline: “I think the teacher’s pension benefits should be awarded to the boy.”

The boy had discontinued his education after the incident and now works as a daily wager,he added.