‘Student’s trust sacred’: Delhi High Court upholds teacher’s jail term for sexual assault

The Delhi High Court has upheld a five-year jail term for a school teacher accused of sexually assaulting a minor student in 2016, emphasizing that a child's trust in a teacher is "sacred." Justice Madhu Jain highlighted that such trust demands a duty to protect the child rather than to abuse it. The minor survivor alleged that the teacher had behaved inappropriately multiple times inside the school premises.

The court found no confusion about the identity of the convict or the nature of the acts he committed, and the survivor's testimony remained consistent about the locations of the assaults. The school principal was also tried for not reporting the incident. The defense argued that there were discrepancies in the date and place of the alleged incident, and that the teacher was 65 years old and suffered from health issues.

However, the prosecution maintained that the minor survivor's testimony was reliable, despite some witnesses not supporting the case.