Use of Harijan is abusive, says SC
“We, as citizens of this country, should always keep one thing in our mind and heart that no people or community should be insulted or looked down upon, and nobody’s feelings should be hurt,” the Supreme Court said in a landmark order on Friday.
Giving this ruling while quashing the order granting anticipatory bail to the accused Omkarjit Singh Ahluwalia and two others who insulted a Scheduled Caste woman, a bench of Justices R.K. Agrawal and Ashok Bhushan said, “The use of the word ‘Harijan’ ‘dhobi’ etc., is often done by people belonging to the socalled upper castes as words of insult, abuse and derision.”
The bench said calling a person by these names is nowadays an abusive language and offensive. It is used not to denote a caste but to intentionally insult and humiliate someone.
Exhorting citizens to respect the feelings of SCs, the bench said the Constitution of India abolished “untouchability”. Further in view of the social attitudes which lead to the commission of such offences against SCs and STs, there is every likelihood of them misusing their liberty while on anticipatory bail to terrorise their victims and to prevent a proper investigation.
Writing the judgement Justice Agrawal said such offences are committed to humiliate and subjugate members of SCs and STs with a view to keeping them in a state of servitude.
The Supreme Court said such offences are committed to subjugate members of SCs and STs to keep them in a state of servitude.
“We, as a citizen of this country, should always keep one thing in our mind and heart that no people or community should be today insulted or looked down upon, and nobody’s feelings should be hurt,” the Supreme Court observed in a landmark ruling on Friday.
These offences constitute a separate class and cannot be compared with offences under the IPC. The court noted that Section 18 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, creates a bar for granting anticipatory bail and the Patna High Court has committed grave error in granting anticipatory bail to the respondents.
In this case the appellant was aggrieved over the grant of anticipatory bail to the accused who tried to outrage her modesty. When the complainant resisted their act, the respondents forcefully pushed her on the floor and started abusing her with filthy words saying, “you ‘Harijan’, ‘dhoban’, you survive on our leftover and you show attitude to us. You ‘Harijan’ people have a lot of attitude and today you will be left destroyed”.
It was further mentioned in the complaint that the respondents threatened her not to tell anybody about the incident.
An FIR was registered on her complaint and the accused were granted anticipatory bail after the trial court took cognizance of the complaint. The present appeal is directed against this order.
The apex court allowed the appeal and asked them to surrender and seek regular bail.