PESHAWAR, Jan 27: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday deleted mention of a section of law dealing with unnatural offences from the FIR registered against some former school employees charged with sexually assaulting students.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Jehanzeb Raheem, ordered the local police that Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code should be deleted from the FIR registered at Kabuli police station on Oct 23.

The bench observed that the section, dealing with unnatural offences, was not applicable to the case. The bench disposed of eight identical writ petitions filed by former employees of the City Government Higher Secondary school No 3 for Boys, seeking deletion of the section from the FIR filed against them.

The FIR was filed under sections 377, 409, 420, 468 and 471 of the Pakistan Penal Code in the light of a judicial inquiry conducted by an additional district and sessions judge, Jamal Khan.

After deletion of Section 377, the accused-petitioners would now be tried only for the rest of the four sections. The additional advocate general, Pir Liaqat, conceded that Section 377 was wrongly included in the FIR.

He stated that the AIG (Legal) of the police department had also given the same opinion and claimed that there was no evidence on record which could prove that sexual abuse had taken place. The bench observed that it would be pre-mature to issue that order and to acquit the petitioners.

The court directed the petitioners that after submission of a charge-sheet of the case before the magistrate concerned, they could file applications under Section 249-A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which empowers the magistrate to acquit a person at any stage of the trial when there are not enough evidence against him.

The petitioners are: Two former principals, Hussain Shah and Haji Abdur Rasheed; three teachers, Abdul Qayyum, Himayatullah and Mubarak Ahmad; two clerks, Shahnawaz and Muhammad Humayun; and watchman Abdul Baseer. All of them are on bail.

Advocate Mian Hissamuddin appeared for Mubarak Ahmad, whereas advocate Sattar Khan represented rest of the seven petitioners. They argued that the instant case was registered on the basis of hearsay and rumours and no evidence had been available on record which could connect the petitioners with the commission of the offence.

They contended that Section 377 of the PPC was not applicable to their case as there was not a single student who had charged them with sexually abusing him. The counsel argued that Section 377 was applicable to unnatural sexual act. They added that none of the inquires conducted in the case could lead to any victim. Therefore, they added, the petitioners could be charged with misconduct and violating discipline, but not with molesting students.