India, Nov. 6 -- The Supreme Court has acquitted the president and hostel superintendent of a Maharashtra tribal residential school of culpable homicide charges over the death of a 12-year-old girl who was crushed when a poorly constructed pillar collapsed on her in 2020.

In a judgment released on Thursday, the court held that a mere breach of duty or failure to ensure proper construction was insufficient to establish criminal liability in the absence of requisite knowledge or proof of gross negligence.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and Manmohan said the school administrators could not be held criminally responsible merely for failing to ensure proper construction of the pillar, particularly when the actual construction work had been...