MOHAMMAD SHABBIR Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application under section 482 Cr.P.C. has been filed seeking direction to the Court below to consider and decide the bail application of the applicant on the same day in Case Crime No. 1268/2013 under sections 354, 509, 354A(1) I & II I.P.C., P.S.-Civil Lines, District-Aligarh. The contention of Counsel for the applicant is that the offences involved in the present case are of trivial nature and as the applicant is the Professor & Chairman of Law Department in Aligarh Muslim University, the event of delay in disposal of his bail application might cause unnecessary incarceration of the applicant which in its turn is likely to bring down his prestige in the Society. The Counsel prays for some protective direction in order to secure the expeditious disposal of bail application on the same day which the applicant proposes to move before the Court below.

(2.) In rebuttal the A.G.A. contends that the gravity of the offence is of course not an irrelevant consideration while issuing some protective direction with regard to the expeditious disposal of bail but in the matter at hand, contrary to the submissions made by applicant's Counsel, the perusal of the F.I.R. would reveal the seriousness of the offence in which the applicant has embroiled himself. The contention is that it is an incident where the Professor and Head of the Law Department has made a brazen reprehensible attempt to molest and outrage the modesty of his own student who was an innocent girl and had gone to him in connection with some project on which she was working. The contents of the F.I.R. reveals a woeful narration given by a badly shaken and crest fallen girl about the coarse obscene overtures made by the applicant in the solitude of a room and as to how, behaving like an ordinary lecher possessed and blinded by his lascivious instincts, he committed the alleged amorous onslaughts against the chaste modesty of the victim. The submission of the A.G.A. is that there are certain relations which have been treated as sacrosanct throughout the ages and the relationship between a student and her teacher is one of the most sacred relationship signified by complete faith and dignity. The way in which the accused delinquent Professor has tried to exploit a girl student and the way he tried to misutilize his authority as Head of the Department and also the way in which he attempted to defile and desecrate the chastity of the girl cannot be condemned enough by words. It is a case in which the protector has himself become an exploiter and the most respected solemn position of authority was debased in committing acts which touch the abysmal depravity of character. The A.G.A. has vehemently opposed the prayer and contends that matter like this should not be soft-pedaled by the Court, lest it should send out a wrong message to the society that the sanctified ambience of so very famous an institution, hitherto known for being a symbol of rich cultural heritage, has now become so vulnerable and unsafe for its own pupil.

(3.) I have gone through the record and considered the rival arguments placed before the Court.