MUMBAI: Ten years after 14 third-year students of a Pune college drowned at Murud beach, the Bombay High Court on Thursday quashed criminal proceedings against 17 people, including the institute’s chairman, principal, teachers and non-teaching staff, ruling that they cannot be held “criminally negligent for an unforeseeable event occurring beyond their direct control or operational purview”.
They are expected to understand the distinction between right and wrong and to appreciate the likely consequences of their actions, it added. Five office-bearers of the educational trust that runs the college, including chairman PA Inamdar, the principal, faculty members, and non-teaching staff accompanying the students, were among those booked. They argued that there was no evidence to invoke the charge of causing death by negligence against the office bearers, teaching and non-teaching members of the college. The court noted that the third-year students had gone to the beach after lunch at a hotel while the two professors supervising them were resting.
On April 19, 2016, the Murud police registered an FIR against 17 people for causing death by negligence. The 17 accused subsequently approached the high court, seeking to quash the criminal proceedings. However, the court refused to accept Newton’s argument, saying that there was no evidence indicating negligence on the part of the staff members that could be said to have resulted in the drowning of the 14 students. The students ventured into the sea, after which 20 of them were swept away by the sea current and 14 unfortunately lost their lives, it added.
A single-judge bench of justice Milind Jadhav said that third-year college students are mature and possess a reasonable degree of life experience. The court also said that if vicarious liability can be foisted on the institute’s trustees, teaching and non-teaching staff members, similar liability can be imposed on state authorities, which are responsible for ensuring that all public beaches have adequate signage, warnings, and beach safety and rescue measures.
