Congress appeals to Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai to take strict action against judges accused of caste discrimination. Party highlights disturbing bail conditions and rising crimes against Dalits and tribals across India.
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NEW DELHI: The Congress Party requested the Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai to look into cases where High Court judges show unfair behavior based on caste.
At a press meet held at the Congress headquarters, Rajendra Pal Gautam, who is the chairman of the Scheduled Caste (SC) department of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), raised serious concerns.
He mentioned a recent case from the Odisha High Court where a social worker got bail but with shocking conditions — he was asked to sweep and clean a police station every day from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. for three months.
Mr. Gautam explained that two activists were jailed in a “false and fabricated case” while protesting illegal mining. He said that when one of them was given bail by the High Court, this unusual punishment was set as a condition.
The second activist also got bail from a lower court, and similar conditions were put on him.
“If this is the attitude of a judge toward castes, then what can you expect from a common man. I would urge the CJI to find out such judicial orders and there should be action such judges too,”
-Mr. Gautam said.
He then reminded the media about a 2021 judgment from the Chhattisgarh High Court, where the court acquitted a rape accused saying that–
“Upper caste men cannot rape an SC or ST woman.”
Mr. Gautam added that-
“A similar reasoning was given in the infamous Bhanwari Devi gang rape case in Rajasthan in 1992. Nothing has changed in all these years.”
He also pointed to recent crime statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and claimed that violence and atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were rising.
According to him, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes are no longer effective because the government has not filled all the posts in these important bodies.
He said,
“If you do not want these commissions to function, it is better scrap them.”
Mr. Gautam said that more than six lakh complaints were made regarding crimes against SCs and STs, but only about 7,500 complaints were actually heard by these commissions.
Further criticizing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he alleged that the organization, which claims to stand for Hindu unity, does not consider Dalits and tribals as Hindus.
He also said that there has been a 35% increase in atrocities against SCs and STs, and cited many disturbing incidents from across the country to show how such crimes continue without any strong punishment or fear of the law.
He mentioned an incident from Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, where a tribal man was forced to drink urine, and another shocking case from Odisha, where a tribal man was forced to walk on his knees after being stopped by Bajrang Dal workers.
In another example, he said,
“In Tamil Nadu, there was a case where a Dalit sarpanch (panchayat head) was forced to sit on the floor while forward caste people sat on chairs.”
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