Supreme Court grants relief to school principal, teachers accused of forcing minor girl to undergo pregnancy test

The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to a school headmaster and two teachers accused of forcing a 16-year-old girl to undergo pregnancy test and harassing her prompting the girl to attempt suicide twice [Chandrakant Devman Aher v. State of Maharashtra and Another]..The girl had alleged in her complaint that she was defamed among the students and a rumour was spread that there was an affair between her and the secretary of the school.A division bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma granted relief to the accused after noting that chargesheet has been filed in the case."Admittedly the charge-sheet has been filed and the appellants are not at flight risk. They are the principal and teachers of the school. In such view of the matter, the impugned order is set aside and the appellants are granted anticipatory bail, subject to the condition that the appellants shall cooperate with the further conduct of trial," the Court said..The accused were booked by the police in March this year under various provisions of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the victim's complaint.The Bombay High Court had on July 10 denied anticipatory bail to the accused, while observing that accused had continuously pressurised and harassed the student in relation to a fight between the two groups controlling the school..As per the prosecution, the victim and her friends had in February 2023 complained to the institute's secretary that they were not getting proper meals at the school.A day after the complaint, the accused allegedly asked the victim to make allegations against the secretary. Though she had denied about any such happening, the accused allegedly continued to put pressure on her to make allegations against the secretary.The harassment allegedly continued for months with the teachers threatening the victim that if she does not make a complaint against the secretary, she will not be granted good marks for internal examination.The accused are also alleged to have verbally abused the victim and spread rumours about her having an affair with the secretary. The accused allegedly continued to harass her to the extent that she once took an extreme step of consuming poison. She was then taken to a dispensary where she was saved.It is also alleged that the accused made her undergo pregnancy test on two occasions. Due to the continuous harassment, she again attempted suicide by consuming suicide."It is her case that, for no reason, she was forced to undergo pregnancy test. She was defamed amongst the students and a rumor was spread that there was affair between the informant and the Secretary of the school. She was forced to take that extreme step of consuming poison because of the harassment," the High Court had noted in its order.This prompted the accused to move the Supreme Court..Advocates Balaji Srinivasan, Abhishek Bharti, Nishaank Mattoo, Mandar Bhanose, Aarti Mahto, Aman Panwar and Mudit Gupta appeared for the accused.Advocates Amol B Karande, Akshay Mann, Shashank Singh, Shrirang B Varma, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Bharat Bagla, Sourav Singh, Aditya Krishna, Preet S. Phanse and Adarsh Dubey, appeared for the respondents..[Read Order]