SC grants bail to CNI Father, Bishop in case of charging exorbitant fees, book prices in Madhya Pradesh school

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has granted bail to Father Abraham Thazhathedathu of the Jabalpur diocese, Bishop Ajay Umesh Kumar James of the Church of North India (CNI), and others in multiple cases of allegedly charging excessive fees and selling textbooks at exorbitant prices in schools run by them in Madhya Pradesh.

A bench of B V Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh allowed their plea against the High Court's order of July 9, which rejected their plea for bail in cases lodged for offences of cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy.

The appellants were arrested in May this year after lodging of the FIRs on a communication issued by Jabalpur Collector on May 24, 2024 to the various government authorities against the management of various schools, book sellers, who were selling books to the students of the schools, publishers of the books as well as other employees like Principal of the School.

The Collector also uploaded a post on Facebook inviting parents of the students, if they had any complaints against the school management.

After hearing senior advocates Sidharth Luthra, Siddharth Dave and Vivek Tankha for the appellants and Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj for the Madhya Pradesh government, the bench, in its order on August 20, said the appellants are entitled to relief as they cannot be incarcerated continually on account of the investigation being inconclusive.

"It is not known as to whether the respondent/State is serious in concluding the investigation," the bench said, adding the allegations made against the appellants are almost identical and bear a pattern.

In their contentions, the appellants' counsel said the management of educational institutions have a right to increase the fee in accordance with the prevalent Act and norms in the state. They also admitted they were engaged in facilitating sale of text books for the benefit of students, which cannot be an offence at all in law.

Nataraj, on the contrary, submitted it is not just and proper to release the appellants on bail as there is a possibility of tampering of evidence and causing prejudice to the trial of the appellants for the offences under the respective provisions of the IPC.

He said the activities of the appellants and their schools have caused grave prejudice to the students and parents and therefore, the police authorities were constrained to swing into action on the complaints made against them.

He also said that the High Court was justified in sustaining the orders passed by the Trial Court in rejecting the applications for bail; that having regard to complex facts that the investigation has not been completed.