Two years after the former vice-principal of a government school was given a year’s jail term by a trial court for parading a Class-VI student naked for three hours in 1997 after the boy took a dip in the school tank, a sessions court, adopting a lenient view, ordered his release on probation for good conduct.

The court has, however, directed the retired teacher to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the student, noting that the monetary penalty would meet the ends of justice.

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.

... contd.