The Delhi High Court has refused to set aside the termination of a Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan teacher for sexually harassing one of his female students, saying his "dissipated" conduct would set a bad precedent for the students, especially boys.
A bench of justices Kailash Gambhir and I S Mehta passed the order and made the observation while rejecting the plea of Udai Singh, who had challenged the decision of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) upholding his sacking.
"One cannot lose sight of the fact that the petitioner was a teacher in a co-ed school and such dissipated conduct of a teacher would grub the entire atmosphere of the school setting a bad precedent for the students itself, specifically boys," it said.
Referring to the case, the court observed that the fate of the girl student was "debauched at the hands of her teacher's unwanted desires who sexually harassed her on the pretext of tutoring".
"She was subjected to harassment at the hands of someone who instead should have been a concierge, a protector," it said, while expressing concern over the cases where "for mere lust", a teacher "has fallen below the standards expected".
"It is quite alarming to read about cases where for mere lust and pleasure, a teacher, a guru, whom we call protector, has fallen below the standards expected of him," it said.
The court said, "It is the responsibility and duty of the management of the school and colleges to protect young children, in particular the female child.
"Even the enquiry conducted in such like matters should always keep in mind the honour, self respect and dignity of the female child and how harrowing the experience could have been for her."
It also said that "students who muster the courage to bring such terrible people out in the open should be lauded".
"In the light of the aforesaid discussion, we find no reasons to disagree with the well reasoned order passed by the Tribunal... And the present petition and pending applications filed by petitioner are dismissed there being no merit," the court said.
The girl had written a letter to the principal of KVS saying when she went to take tuitions from Singh after school, he used to sexually harass her, the court noted.
