Take cue from poll results, eradicate caste from people’s minds: HC to TN govt

Madurai: Madras high court on Thursday observed that the assembly election results in Tamil Nadu have shown that people can indeed be convinced to vote without considering caste or community of the contestants and therefore the govt shall take responsibility to eradicate caste from the minds of the people.

Terming caste killing as the extreme reflection of casteism, Justice B Pugalendhi observed that a govt has been formed by largely nullifying the factors of caste. There were 59 ‘honour killings’ reported in the state in the past 10 years. “No matter how powerful or privileged a person is, everyone is experiencing casteism in one form or another. Even we judges are not spared from the same. Motives are attributed to our orders on the basis of caste, even though the cases are being decided on the basis of merit,” the judge said.

K Kamaraj, Muthuramalinga Thevar, V O Chidambaram, etc., are now projected on communal basis. This mindset of the people has to be changed and the state alone can bring about such a change, said the judge. The state has to take strong initiative for the same. However even certain political parties are adding fuel to this social evil by using caste to mobilise votes, the court said.

The judge observed that measures recommended by Justice K Chandru committee to eradicate casteism and ensure social harmony in the schools have not been implemented in full. Legislations like SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act have not yielded expected results. In this respect, the judge pointed out how soldiers drawn from every caste, community, language, and region unite for a common cause. Their example should inspire every citizen to reject caste prejudices, observed the judge.

The court made the observations while hearing the bail plea of suspended sub-inspector of police (SI) K Saravanan who is the father of Surjith, the main accused in the caste killing case where a youth, C Kavin Selva Ganesh, was murdered in Tirunelveli district.

Considering the fact that Saravanan was in jail for the past 10 months, his wife arrested, and final report has been filed, the judge observed that keeping him in jail any longer would amount to pre-trial imprisonment and therefore, the court is inclined to grant bail to him with stringent conditions. The judge directed him to stay in Coimbatore and report before R S Puram police station everyday twice at 10.30 am and 5pm.