Mumbai, Dec. 30 -- Almost 17 years after the shocking rape of a minor in a tribal residential school (ashramshala) in Palghar, the Bombay High Court has granted relief to the school's former headmaster and said that his removal from service was a 'disproportionate punishment' for his actions. The court dismissed an appeal filed by the state tribal development commissioner and the additional commissioner against an order of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) that had sent the headmaster's case back to the disciplinary authority to impose a minor punishment. A division bench of justices Suman Shyam and M M Sathaye observed that the headmaster was not accused of any sexual offences. He was, however, accused of failing to prevent the incident of sexual assault and failing to report the matter to the superior authorities. "Even if the allegation of negligence brought against the respondent (headmaster) is sustained, considering the nature of delinquency, the same, in our considered opinion, would not justify the major penalty for dismissal from service," the judges said. They observed that there was nothing on record to show that the headmaster was responsible for the day-to-day running of the girls' hostel. The headmaster had taken charge of the Government Secondary School in Palghar in 1995. The school had hostels for both girls and boys, which were under the direct control of their respective superintendents. In 2009, a teenage pregnancy in the school had "created a furore", the court noted. The high court too had taken suo motu action in the matter. After a criminal offence was registered in the case, the main accused, superintendent of the boys' hostel Vinod Shirsat, was tried for rape and other offences. The superintendent of the girls' hostel and the headmaster were both tried for intentionally failing to inform authorities about the incident. At the same time a department inquiry was also initiated against both the superintendents and the headmaster. In May 2009, the additional commissioner of tribal development dismissed the headmaster from service without any retirement benefits. In October 2009, however, a sessions court in Palghar acquitted all the three accused in the case. The state government's appeal against their acquittal is pending in the high court. In 2012, the headmaster challenged the decision before the MAT that held, in 2015, that the punishment handed out to the headmaster was "shockingly disproportionate" and asked the department to consider his case afresh and award a minor penalty. Calling the MAT's order "reasonable", the high court also said that the tribunal had noted that the headmaster had, in fact, "taken steps in the early days to ensure that the matter did not escalate further but his superior authorities did not stand by him."...