New Delhi, Apr 23 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday restored the prosecution of a Kerala teacher under the POCSO Act and termed the high court’s reasoning in quashing the case against him as “insensitive”.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh ordered the school administration not to reinstate the suspended teacher accused of sexually harassing 52 girl students till the conclusion of trial in the case.

The top court, as a result, set aside the July 13, 2022 verdict of the high court quashing the FIR against the accused saying it went into the evidence and conducted a mini-trial and pre-judged the issues.

“This case is a glaring example of victimisation of the victims of prima facie offenses under POCSO and maybe some provisions of the IPC and vide the impugned judgment, the high court, after holding a mini trial, including taking notes of contents of the statements alleged to have been made by the victims at preliminary stage, jumped to a conclusion that ‘it is not possible to infer that the said act has been done by the petitioner with any sexual intent’,” the bench said.

The order went on, “We are disappointed with the manner in which the high court has acted in an insensitive manner, ignoring the fact that respondent 1 was a teacher and the victims were his students.” The top court said the preliminary statements recorded before the police by the survivors prima facie revealed offenses under the POCSO Act.

“We fail to understand as to how the high court inferred that Section 7 of POCSO Act will not be attracted unless there is an act involving physical contact with sexual intent. The issue has been apparently pre-judged by the high court without permitting the victims to enter the witness box and depose,” it said.

The bench found “no reason” to doubt it was a fit case in which the teacher ought to have faced trial by ensuring the identities of the victims were not revealed and they were treated as protected witnesses with their statements being recorded at the earliest.

Justice Kant, who pronounced the verdict in an open court, said it was “disturbing” that most of the victim-students belonged to the minority communities.

“It’s very disturbing that most of the victims targeted are from minority communities, though there are others also and probably thinking that because of the conservative, social barriers and all, the victims will not disclose (their ordeal),” he said.

The top court was surprised that the teacher moved the high court for quashing the FIR after purportedly reaching a compromise with one of the survivors.

It appeared to the bench the accused had some sort of influence as the police did not record statements of all survivors in the beginning.

Directing the trial court to proceed with the trial, the bench said statements of the survivors should be recorded first with the victims being treated as protected witnesses.

The police was ordered to ensure the accused was not allowed to contact or attempt to influence the victims or witnesses.

The school management, in the meantime, was granted the liberty to proceed with its disciplinary enquiry, independent of pending criminal prosecution.

The prosecution alleged the teacher misbehaved with the girl students, touched them inappropriately while teaching them how to use a desktop mouse and asked them “obnoxious questions about sanitary napkins”.

The top court said when the students complained to school authorities, a preliminary enquiry was conducted and the head of the department recovered women magazines and some CDs from the school’s computer lab.

A showcause notice was issued to him following which he tendered an apology and assured to mend his ways.

The bench said the misbehavior, however, continued and the accused ended up sending vulgar photographs on what he thought were WhatsApp numbers of the girl students though some of them belonged to their parents.

The accused was arrested by the police and after judicial intervention, five separate FIRs were registered against him under Sections 7 (sexual assault) and 8 (punishment) of the POCSO Act.

In one of the cases, the accused approached the high court for quashing of the FIR, contending the dispute was settled with a complainant-survivor.

Despite the chargesheet being filed and statements of survivors recorded under Section 164 CrPC, the high court quashed the criminal proceedings against the accused saying that POCSO offenses required establishment of sexual intent.

Aggrieved by the high court decision, the survivors moved the top court. PTI MNL MNL AMK AMK