Ex-vice principal lands in net for harassment over caste

A former vice principal of a school, has been convicted by a Delhi court for harassing an employee due to his Scheduled Caste status.

Additional Sessions Judge T R Naval held the former vice principal S C Jain of a private school in east Delhi guilty of committing the “offence of atrocity” and forcing a waterman to work as sweeper because he belonged to Scheduled Caste (SC).

The court passed the order on a complaint by Uttar Pradesh native Surat Singh, who had alleged that Jain had restrained him from doing his job as waterman and asked him to work as a cleaner when the vice principal came to know that he belonged to Jatav community.

“Jain is held guilty and convicted for the offences punishable under section 3(1)(X) of the SC/ST Act and section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of IPC. He has been taken into judicial custody,” the court said.

It acquitted three other school staffers Baru Singh, R P Sharma and Kaniya Lal Singhal on the ground that the prosecution has failed to prove their case against them.

The prosecution said the  first day when Singh joined the school in December 2007, the vice principal asked him his caste. After knowing he was SC, the vice principal told him that he was not going to take water from him.