Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 – s.75 – Person who can be punished for cruelty to a child – Four year old sexually assaulted by a classmate in the school – Charge sheet filed against four persons, including appellant-Chairman of Managing Committee – Special judge issued summons to appellant, attributing negligence to the appellant for not implementing Guidelines issued by Directorate of Education for installation of CCTV cameras in school premises – Revision application by the appellant – Dismissed by the High Court – Correctness:
Held: On a plain reading of the first part of s.75, a person who can be punished for cruelty to a child must be shown to have either the actual charge of the child or control over the child – Reference to the child in s.75 is to the victim of the offence – It is impossible to even allege that the appellant, being Chairman of the Managing Committee had the actual charge of all the children studying in the school run by the institution – It cannot be said that he had control over all the children in the School – He may have control over the management of the institution which runs the School – That does not give him control over every child studying in the school – While considering the applicability of s.75, concern is not with the moral responsibility of the school’s management – Assuming that the appellant was morally responsible, s.75 cannot be applied unless it is shown that the appellant had the actual charge of the victim child or control over the victim child – Impugned orders set aside. [Paras 8, 9]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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