The Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking direction to the respondent authorities to conduct an inquiry regarding the case of a tribal girl of a Kanya Awasiya Vidyalaya becoming pregnant.
Brief facts of the case are that on a news was published in a daily newspaper Bilaspur edition dated 13.07.2024 .The said news item was relates to North Baster, Kanker district and despite having knowledge of the fact to the authorities and political leaders, no action has been taken against the erring persons, therefore, the petition has been filed in the form of PIL for an inquiry to be conducted by the Competent Officer of the State and to take appropriate action in the matter .
The counsel for the petitioner submitted that previously also the same incident took place in the Korba district and the State has taken steps to transfer all the male employees posted in the girls hostel to other places in the State of Chhattisgarh. The present case also requires proper investigation and to take appropriate action against the erring persons/officers so that the public at large of the State of Chhattisgarh may not suffer by any untoward incidents like the same.
The Advocate General , on behalf of the State submitted that as per the instructions received by him, the news item which was published in the daily newspapers on 13.07.2024 regarding tribal girl of the hostel of Kanya Awasiya Vidyalaya who was found to be pregnant and allegations were levelled against the Superintendent of the said Hostel is fake.
It is submitted by the Advocate General that the inquiry was conducted by the Sub Division Officer, Revenue, Pakhanjur, District North Baster, Kanker, and after due inquiry, it was found that a male teacher who was living opposite the girls hostel was asked to vacate his Government quarter who himself has got news published in the newspaper and in fact no incident as published in the newspaper had taken place.
It is further submitted that the complaint made by the said male teacher was false and a departmental inquiry is initiated against him as well as the Hostel Superintendent who also was not residing in the said hostel.
It is further submitted that the statement of the victim has also been recorded and she has denied any such incident.
Considering the submissions made by the Advocate General that the matter has been inquired and found that no such incident took place with the victim girl and the news item published in Daily newspaper on 13.07.2024 is found false, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal did not found fit to proceed further in the matter and the petition in the form of Public Interest Litigation is liable to be dismissed.
At this stage, the High Court asked the counsel for the petitioner as to why he had filed the petition without proper verification of the news item published in the Daily newspaper, he could not suitably reply and apologies for filing the petition.