24.11.2023.Untouchables of India,Pay back to Society Help the Poor,and Dr Ambedkar Ambulance Assn.by Sivaji.GS.
Karnataka High Court declines to quash criminal case against eight persons over denying temple entry to Scheduled Caste family
Untouchability is unfortunately persisting in rural areas despite its abolition, says the court
November 23, 2023 08:50 pm | Updated November 24, 2023 03:32 am IST - Bengaluru

Bengaluru / Karnataka : 19/08/2020 : A view of High Court of Karnataka on 19 August 2020. Photo : V Sreenivasa Murthy/The Hindu. | Photo Credit: SREENIVASA MURTHY V
“Although temples are seen to be symbols of unity and inclusivity, denial of rights of temple entry and worship to persons belonging to SC and Scheduled Tribe communities, still looms large. This attitude of the petitioners is undoubtedly regressive for they have denied entry into a temple, only on the score that the complainant and her family belong to a Scheduled Caste,” the court observed.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna passed the order while rejecting the petition filed by Panduranga Bhat, 70, Usha, 68, Sharadha, 40, Vilas Ladva, 50, Venkata Narayana, 67, Chidananda, 63, Ravi, 55, and Uma, 63, all residents of different localities in Harihar, Davangere district. The petitioners belong to Brahmin, Lingayat, Pattegar, and Kamma communities, it was stated in the chargesheet.
The petitioners had questioned the legality of registration of the case against them in 2016 under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and Section 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
‘A needle in the haystack’
The court said that in a large number of petitions, the High Court has quashed several cases registered under the SCs/STs (PoA) Act with an observation that “searching for a case where a member belonging to SCs or STs has actually suffered abuses was like searching for a needle in the haystack.”
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However, “the present case is clearly a needle in the haystack, as the abuses [against members of the SC community] and the allegations are all prima facie found and therefore, no interference is called for,” observed Justice Nagaprasanna.
Background
The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by one Savithramma, a resident of Vinayaka Nagar camp, Harihar. It was stated in the complaint that she along with her husband and seven-year-old son and other villagers went Gadi Chowdeshwari temple, Vinayaka Nagar camp, Kumbaluru, Harihar, on September 17, 2016. However, the petitioners stopped them at the entrance of the temple, insulted them by their caste, and assaulted them when they insisted that they want to offer prayer to the deity.
Rejecting the petitioners’ contention that the incident did not occur in public place or public view and hence provisions of the SCs/STs (PoA) Act cannot be invoked against them, the High Court said that as the incident took place outside the door of the temple, it is certainly a public place or place of public view hence contains necessary ingredients of Section 3(1)(s) and (r) of the Act for intentionally insulting and abusing members of the SC community in a place within public view.
“Deity in the temple cannot even be imagined to be belonging to a few. Worshipping of the deity, by entering into the temple, is to be given to one and all. Any kind of bigotry or discrimination is unacceptable. Trial in such cases cannot be interdicted,” the court observed.
News no 2.
Bihar seeks addition of caste-based laws in ninth schedule
The Nitish Kumar government on Wednesday asked the Centre to include two recently amended laws, which increase the caste-based quota in Bihar from 50% to 65%, in the ninth schedule of the Constitution.
“A total of 40 agenda points, including two impromptu proposals, were discussed and given assent to by the cabinet,” Siddharth said.
Hours later, the state government sent a letter to the Centre, urging it to begin the formalities to include the two laws in the ninth schedule.
“We will wait and watch for the Centre’s reaction to our proposal. This requires a constitutional amendment by Parliament. We may seek an appointment with the Prime Minister and handover a formal proposal to him,” said state parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary.
The development came a day after the state government notified the increase in quota for reserved categories in education and government jobs, from 50% to 65%, joining only a handful of other states such as Tamil Nadu where the quantum of such reservation exceed the 50% ceiling fixed by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney case.
Siddarth said the inclusion of the two laws — the Bihar Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services Amendment Act, 2023 and the Bihar Reservation (Admission in Educational Institutions) Amendment Act, 2023 — in the ninth schedule would give them immunity from judicial review. Tamil Nadu’s reservation law was put in the ninth schedule — which has only limited scope for judicial scrutiny — in 1993.
The two laws raised the quota for Scheduled Castes (SC) from 16% to 20%, Scheduled Tribes (STs) from 1% to 2%, Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) from 18% to 25% and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) from 15% to 18% to elevate the total quantum of caste-based reservations to 65%, setting the stage for a potential shake-up of Hindi heartland politics that could elevate caste as a key poll plank for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
To be sure, the total quantum of reservation in jobs and educational institutions will stand at 75%, after taking into account the 10% quota for economically weaker sections (EWS).
The state cabinet also passed a resolution to request the Centre to grant special status to Bihar, a long-standing demand of CM Kumar.
“The cabinet has passed a resolution requesting the Centre for grant of special category status to Bihar,” Kumar wrote in a post in Hindi on X (formerly twitter), adding that the demand was necessitated by the findings of the recently-concluded caste-based survey carried out in the state.
The senior Janata Dal (United) leader further said that his government has planned to undertake a number of welfare measures for the benefit of 9.4 million poor families.
“We intend to provide, in instalments, an assistance of ₹2 lakh to one member of each of these families for some type of economic activity,” Kumar said.
The chief minister also maintained that his government was committed to building pucca (permanent) houses for “39 lakh [3.9 million] families living in huts” and every such household will be provided ₹1.20 lakh for the purpose.
He said that the Bihar government has decided to increase the assistance to landless families for purchasing land from ₹60,000 to ₹1 lakh which would benefit 63,850 such households identified in the survey.
“The implementation of all such measures will incur an expenditure of ₹2.50 lakh crore. Because of the huge sum involved, we have set a deadline of five years from now for the completion of the schemes. But if we get special category status, we will be able to accomplish the task in a much shorter time,” Kumar, the longest-serving chief minister of state, said.
Kumar said that he was raising the demand for special status since 2010. “To look into our demand, the government at the Centre had set up a committee headed by (former RBI governor) Raghuram Rajan which submitted its report in 2013, but nothing came of it,” he wrote in the social media post. “In May 2017, we again wrote to the Centre requesting special status…. it is my request that the Centre agree to the demand keeping in view the interests of the people of Bihar.”
Former minister and JD(U) chief spokesman Neeraj Kumar said: “Both houses of the state legislature had approved a proposal seeking special status for Bihar and the same was sent to the Centre twice. But the state government’s plea was neither accepted nor rejected.”
Explaining the benefits of the special status, he said: “Bihar will able to grant tax holiday or substantial tax concession to investors willing to set up their industries or other installations to boost economic activities. Besides, the state will also qualify for getting 90% central share in centrally-sponsored scheme instead of the current 60% or even less than it from the Centre.”
The Bihar cabinet, additional chief secretary Siddharth said, approved the proposal to increase the dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees and pensioners by 4% with effect from July 1. It also approved the draft of Bihar logistics policy 2023, which envisages various incentives and capital subsidy to the investors in building logistics parks, multi-modal logistics park and other associated installations. The cabinet also gave its assent to the energy department’s investment proposal for setting up 185MW solar power project at Kajra in Lakhisarai.
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