'Education Now A Business': Madras HC Transfers Probe Into UKG Student's Death In School; Says 'Poor Rarely Get Justice'

Observing that normally poor victims rarely get justice in the current system, the Madras High Court recently transferred the probe into the unnatural death of a 5-year-old UKG Student inside her school campus in March this year.Stressing that the victims have a right to a fair investigation, which is an integral part of the right to life guaranteed under Article 21, a bench of Justice B Pugalendhi directed the Superintendent of Police, Tenkasi, to withdraw the case from the local police and hand it over for probe to a sincere senior police officer.Case in briefBriefly put, the HC was hearing a plea by the father of the victim seeking transfer of the probe into the death from a local police inspector to CB-CID. He apprehended that the death was not an accident, as was claimed by the school management, but a pre-planned murder. The petitioner claimed that the police were not acting fairly. He also claimed that he was not informed about the incident till he personally saw the dead body of his daughter in the hospital. Neither the Principal nor the Correspondent of the school informed him.On the other hand, the school management claimed that 2 persons, who came to the School in a car to see a staff member of the school, drove the car in a rash and negligent manner inside the school premises and hit the child, due to which she died.The petitioner strongly doubted this claim. He questioned how the car was allowed to enter the school premises and how the driver drove the car rashly and negligently inside the school campus. He submitted that the same can be verified only using the CCTV footage, which the school had refused to show him. On the other hand, the Government advocate submitted that the respondent police have recovered the CCTV footage and have also identified the accused. It was also apprised the bench that, though the school watchman objected to the car entering the school, the accused forcibly entered the school, and thereafter the accident took place.High Court's observationsConsidering the facts of the case as well as the prayer for a fair probe, the bench, at the outset, made sharp observations regarding the commercialization of education. Justice Pugalendhi observed thus:"Goddess Saraswati is considered to be a symbol of education, and imparting education was considered to be holy for some time in this country. Nowadays, it has become a lucrative business"The bench noted that the school management, which also runs a multispeciality hospital opposite the school campus, had allegedly failed to inform the petitioner-father about the accident. Justice Pugalendhi also noted that the school management intentionally suppressed information about the incident by not informing the police or the petitioner about the vehicle that caused the accident and that it may have allowed the accused to escape from the place of occurrence.The Court added that if the police had been informed of the vehicle number in time, the accused could have been arrested the same day, and the police could have found out whether the accused was in an inebriated state.The Court also took exception to the local police's handling of the case. It noted that the FIR had been registered belatedly, without specifying the name of the accused and without securing the accused and even the vehicle involved was not immediately seized by the police."...this court is also having a reasonable doubt that the respondent police has not acted in a proper manner as expected from them. Normally, in this system poor victims rarely get justice...this court is of the view that this is a fit case for transfer of investigation," the Court noted.Though the Court refrained from immediately transferring the case to the CB-CID, it directed the Tenkasi SP to entrust the case to a sincere police officer, either a Deputy Superintendent of Police or an Inspector of Police, to ensure a fair and proper investigation.The Court has also directed that the petitioner be given a copy of the CCTV footage recovered from the school premises. The new investigating officer has been directed to determine the exact time of occurrence by examining the school staff and students, in addition to the watchman."The progress of the investigation along with the postmortem certificate shall also be furnished to the petitioner so that confidence is created in the investigation," the Court further directed as it disposed of the plea.The bench, however, kept it open for the petitioner to move the HC and seek further transfer of the investigation, if the probe is still not conducted in a proper manner.Counsel for Petitioner: Mr.S.ParthibanCounsel for Respondent: Mr.B.Thanga Aravindh, Government Advocate (Crl. Side)Case title: V. Marisamy vs The Superintendent of Police, Tirunelveli and othersCitation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 169Click Here To Read/Download Order

'Education Now A Business': Madras HC Transfers Probe Into UKG Student's Death In School; Says 'Poor Rarely Get Justice'

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'Education Now A Business': Madras HC Transfers Probe Into UKG Student's Death In School; Says 'Poor Rarely Get Justice'

Sparsh Upadhyay

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