The Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench on Tuesday ordered a CBI probe into the alleged suicide by a 17-year-old girl student in a school run by the Catholic Church. Justice G R Swaminathan, who heard the plea filed by the parents of the girl concurred with their apprehension that the suicide was the fall out of the attempt by the school authorities to convert the victim to Christianity. “Conversion attempt was improbable,” said the judge while disposing of the petition and ordering the transfer of the investigation to the CBI in what is being seen as a setback to the DMK Government which vehemently opposed the move.
“The school in question is run by a Congregation. The Holy Bible says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28: 19-20).
In Mark 16 : 14-18, Jesus says “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned”. This is called in Christian theological terms as the Great Commission,” said Justice Swaminathan.
Referring to the Supreme Court verdict in Rev. Stainislaus Versus State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors. (1977) 1SCC 677. the judge said that the Constitution of India while accepting the rights to propage one's religion, does not give any right to conver the people.
"If one reads the views expressed by some of the Christian members of the Constituent Assembly, one would note that some of them had even batted for the right to convert even minor children," said Swaminathan. .
The girl student, who was a resident scholar at Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Michaelpatti, in Thanjavur district and administered by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Society, an influential Congregation under the Roman Catholic Church, reportedly consumed pesticide on January 9, 2022. She told the investigating officer of Thanjavur Police that she was being harassed by the school authorities by forcing her to clean the toilets and other jobs which has no links to the academic curriculum.
On January 19, 2022 she breathed her last while undergoing treatment at Thanjavur Government Medical College.