The Supreme Court has acquitted the president and hostel superintendent of a Maharashtra tribal residential school of culpable homicide charges over the death of a 12-year-old girl who was crushed when a poorly constructed pillar collapsed on her in 2020.
In a judgment released on Thursday, the court held that a mere breach of duty or failure to ensure proper construction was insufficient to establish criminal liability in the absence of requisite knowledge or proof of gross negligence. Towards the end of the judgment, the court acknowledged the tragedy and the anguish of the victim’s parents but cautioned against allowing the outcome of an incident to influence the application of criminal law. The court emphasised that culpable homicide under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code requires proof of intention or knowledge that the act was likely to cause death, and that the mere use of inferior construction material could not, by itself, establish that the school administrators knew that the construction was likely to cause a student’s death.
“The mere failure to attain the standard of care prescribed by the law, thereby committing breach of such duty as observed by the high court would not be a criminal act,” noted the bench, setting aside the Bombay High Court’s February 2026 order refusing to quash the criminal proceedings against the two school officials.
The case
The high court had declined to quash the proceedings, holding that forensic examination of the construction material revealed inadequate cement content and that the pillar lacked a proper solid base. Her father, a labourer, lodged an FIR alleging that the school’s president, Matin Shankarrao Bhosale and the hostel superintendent had deliberately permitted substandard construction and failed to take adequate precautions, resulting in the pillar collapsing on the children. It concluded that there was sufficient material to indicate a breach of duty by the school officials and that they had knowledge that substandard construction could cause harm or death.
Following an investigation, police filed a chargesheet against the two under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) read with Section 34 (joint criminal liability) of the IPC.
