M A I N   N E W S

Ruchika Case
School found guilty
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 7
Following a magisterial inquiry, the UT Administration today held Sacred Heart School, Sector 26, guilty of expelling Ruchika Girhotra in an arbitrary, harsh and mala fide manner under the apparent pressure from former DGP SPS Rathore.

Taking a serious view of the fact that current Principal Sr Sebastina, who was the Principal at that time also, has confessed to have herself ordered the expulsion. The Administration is all set to withdraw the state award conferred on her in 2005.

The report, which was submitted to the UT Governor today, stated that the school exhibited moral callousness and ruthlessness by expelling Ruchika as an isolated case, that too at a time when she needed emotional and moral support.

An evaluation of the school records showed that Ruchika Girhotra was the only student to have been expelled for the non-payment of fee in the past 20 years though there were over 135 similar cases with 17 being reported in the year of her expulsion.

The school has been held guilty of singling out Ruchika and making an unprecedented exception and selectively applying the rules pertaining to non-payment of fees in her case. The school authorities kept on insisting that she was never expelled, but her name was struck off the rolls. Inquiry officer Prerna Puri held the expulsion and striking off the rolls were the two sides of the same coin and the school could not escape the responsibility for its action by using of such expressions. In her complaint, Madhu Prakash had accused the school authorities of expelling Ruchika a month after her molestation so as to save SPS Rathore’s daughter from embarrassment. Though the inquiry has found no direct evidence against Rathore as regards pressurizing the school, it was quite probable in view of the strong circumstantial evidence to the effect that Ruchika’s expulsion was proximate in time and followed close on the heels of the incident of molestation.