6 HC judges refuse to hear convicts’ appeal

Saying that three to four judges had excused themselves from hearing the appeal last year,state Advocate General R K Bawa said: “The appeal did come up for hearing before different benches but the case was adjourned. One of reasons was judges excusing themselves.”

High Court Register General A C Dogra said: “It is quite normal that sometimes,judges do excuse themselves from hearing a particular case or appeal. Now,we have sufficient number of judges. The Hon’ble Chief Justice will take a decision on which judge will hear the case.”

A first-year MBBS student,Aman Kachroo,had died after he was ragged by four of his seniors — Ajay Verma,Naveen Verma,Abhinav Verma and Mukul Sharma. The postmortem report report had confirmed the cause of death as shock due to head injury.

Kachroo,who had passed his Class XII exams from DPS International in New Delhi,had earlier made repeated complaints to his parents regarding his seniors indulging in ragging in an inebriated condition.

On November 11,2010,the accused were held guilty under Sections 304 II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder),452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt,assault or wrongful restraint),34 (common intention) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC by Additional District and Sessions Judge Purinder Vaidya. They were sentenced to four-year rigorous imprisonment and slapped with a a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

The state government had filed an appeal in the high court seeking enhancement of the punishment. The accused,on the other hand,had sought quashing of the sentence.

The case had attracted nationwide outrage and also intervention of the Supreme Court,which had ordered action against the college principal and sent notice to the state government. The then college principal,Dr S Sankhayan,was held responsible for the incident following a magisterial probe ordered by the government. He was made to retire on October 30,2010 for his inefficient handling of the case on the directions of the Supreme Court.

Following the incident,the government had also passed the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Ragging) Act-2009 in August last year.