New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the criminal proceedings against a nun, working as a teacher, in a case of abetment of suicide of a 12-year-old school girl in Chhattisgarh.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and P K Mishra was hearing an appeal filed by Sister Mercy alias Elizabeth, a nun who was working as a teacher in the Carmel Convent School at Ambikapur town in Chhattisgarh's Surguja district, against the high court's order.
The Chhattisgarh High Court had dismissed her plea for quashing the chargesheet in the criminal case against her. It was alleged by the state police that the teacher instigated the Class-6 student to commit suicide by hanging on February 2. A final report against her, under section 305 (abetment of suicide of a child or insane person) of the Indian Penal Code, was filed in a Chhattisgarh court.
In her appeal against the order, the teacher, through senior advocate Romy Chacko, said, "The disciplinary measures adopted by a teacher or other authorities of a school, reprimanding a student for his indiscipline, would not amount to provoking a student to commit suicide unless there are repeated, specific allegations of harassment and insult deliberately, without any justifiable cause or reason."
There was no intention to instigate or provoke the student to commit suicide and a disciplinary action cannot be construed as abetment, the plea said.
The bench issued a notice to the state police and stayed the criminal proceedings against the appellant.
