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 staffer, employed as a waterman, to work as sweeper because he belonged to scheduled caste.
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 of cleaning when the vice principal came to know that he belonged to Jatav community, a scheduled caste.
"In view of the above reasons and conclusions, it is held that prosecution/complainant has successfully proved its/his case against accused No.1 (S C Jain) beyond any reasonable suspicion or shadow of doubt that he committed an offence of atrocity on complainant who is a member of scheduled caste...
"Consequently, 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 be taken into judicial custody," the court said.
The court, however, acquitted three other school staffers Baru Singh, R P Sharma and Kaniya Lal Singhal on the ground that the prosecution and the complainant has failed to prove their case against them.
The prosecution said that the very first day when Singh joined the school in December 2007, the vice principal asked him about his caste and after coming to know that his was a scheduled caste, he told him that he was not going to take water from him and asked him to work as sweeper and cleaner.