Rajasthan High Court's shocking decision on casteist words!

Rajasthan High Court did not consider some words as casteist. SC/ST Act will not be applicable on words like Bhangi, Neech. Decision given in encroachment dispute.

Jaipur. In an important decision, the Rajasthan High Court has ordered not to consider some words as caste-indicative in a case registered under the SC-ST Act. While giving the verdict, the court said that words like Bhangi, Neech, Bhikari and Mangni are not caste-indicative and sections of the SC-ST Act cannot be applied on the use of these words. This case was related to a dispute during the removal of encroachment, in which there was an argument with the employees of the department.

Know what the judge said in his full decision….

During the hearing of this case, Justice Birendra Kumar's bench ordered that the sections of SC-ST Act be dropped against the four accused. The accused had filed a petition in the court saying that the allegations leveled against them were false and they did not intend to use casteist words. The accused said that they had no idea about the caste of the victim and that the incident did not happen in public, as the prosecution was claiming.

The judge said – there was no derogatory intent regarding caste

While hearing the petition, the court said that the words used by the accused were not casteist and these words did not have any caste-based reference. Apart from this, it was also clarified that it could not be proved against the accused that they were aware of the caste of the victim or had any derogatory intention regarding his caste. However, the court also said that the criminal trial will continue on the charge of obstructing the discharge of public duties of public servants.

This is the first time such a case has come up

The counsel for the petitioners also argued that the abuses were not used to insult, but to protest against the wrong measurement being done by government employees. According to him, this was not a caste-based crime, but an administrative dispute. This decision has raised the question as to when the use of these words falls under the category of casteism and when not…. This is the first time such a case has come to light.