The Supreme Court on Friday stayed criminal proceedings against a nun working as a teacher for allegedly abetting the suicide of a Chhattisgarh schoolgirl. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and P.K. Mishra was hearing an appeal filed by Sister Mercy alias Elizabeth, a nun working as a teacher at Carmel Convent School in Ambikapur in Surguja district, against the high court order.
Earlier, the Chhattisgarh High Court had rejected Sister Mercy’s petition in which she had sought cancellation of the charge sheet in the criminal case against her.
The state police has alleged that the teacher had instigated a 12-year-old student studying in class six to commit suicide by hanging herself on February 2. After which the police filed a final report in a court in Chhattisgarh, registering a crime against her under section 305 (abetting a child to commit suicide) of the Indian Penal Code in this case.
In her appeal against the order, the teacher, through senior advocate Romi Chacko, said, ‘Disciplinary action by a teacher or other school authority in the form of reprimanding a student for indiscipline does not amount to abetment of suicide of a student, unless there are repeated allegations of deliberate harassment and humiliation without any reasonable cause or reason.
The petition said there was no intention to provoke the student to commit suicide and disciplinary action cannot be construed as provocation. The bench issued notice to the state police and stayed criminal proceedings against the appellant.