O R D E R

The prayers in the afore captioned Criminal Miscellaneous Case filed under Sec.482 of Cr.PC are as follows:

“(i) To quash Anx.A-2 final report and all further proceedings in C.C No.411/2019 pending before the Hon'ble Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-

III, (Forest Offences), Nedumangad.

(ii) To issue any other order or direction appropriate in the circumstances of this case which this Hon'ble Court deems just and necessary.”

2. Heard Sri.K.Sasikumar, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Sri.B.Jayasurya, learned Public Prosecutor appearing for the 1st respondent State of Kerala.

3. This Court had earlier ordered that though the president of the Parent-Teacher Association is the formal first informant/defacto complainant, the petitioner will have to implead CW2, CW4, CW5 & CW6, who are the parents/guardians of the students, who have alleged to have suffered the acts in question at the hands of the petitioner. Accordingly, the impleadment application so filed by the petitioner was allowed by this Court and notices have thus been duly served on additional respondents 2, 3, 4 & 5 (CW Nos.2, 4, 5 & 6 respectively. The Registry has now noted that this Court had ordered that notice be served on those additional respondents through the Inspector of Police of the area concerned. The Registry has endorsed that service on respondents 2, 3 & 5 has been completed on 03-09-2020, whereas service on R4 has not been completed. The Inspector of Police has also given a report that additional R4 has died on 29-12-2019 and copy of the death certificate of the said party has also been produced before the Registry. Though notices has thus been duly served on the abovesaid additional parties, they have not appeared before this Court in spite of adjournments.

4. It appears that the abovesaid criminal proceedings have arisen on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Thiruvananthapuram, in which the learned Magistrate had directed that the police may register a crime and conduct the investigation in the allegations raised therein, pursuant thereto, the Police has registered the impugned Anx.A-1 FIR in crime No.1030/2020 of Vattiyoorkavu Police station, Thiruvananthapuram, in which petitioner herein has been arrayed as the sole accused for offences punishable under Secs.323, 341 and 506 of the IPC and Sec.23 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986. The police after investigation has filed the impugned Anx.A-2 Final report/charge sheet before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court- II, Nedumangad, for offences punishable under Secs.323, 341 and 506 of IPC and Sec.23 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 1986, which has led to the pendency of Calendar Case C.C No.411/2019 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-II (Forest offence), Nedumangad.

5. The brief of the prosecution case is that, while the petitioner was discharging his duties and functions of the Principal-in- Charge/Headmaster-in-charge and Manager of the Bharathiya Vidhya Bhavan school, Kodungannur, Thiruvananthapuram, on 20-11-2009, he had come to C Division of Class No.I and tapped on the shoulders of students in question and pinched on their ears with the intention to cause hurt to them and restrained the teacher who tried to stop the incident.

6. The petitioner would point out that while he was discharging the function in his official capacity as the principal-in- charge/Headmaster-in-charge, who is the head of the school, who had acted only on the reports of the various teachers, complaining about certain students making nuisance in the class and that it was the duty of the Principal-in-charge/Headmaster-in-charge and as the head of the institution to enforce disciple among students and that going by the legal positions well settled by this Court in a series of cases, such a alleged act on the part of teacher or head of the institution will not invite any criminal culpability and the impugned criminal proceedings