HC asks Centre, Delhi government to respond to plea over using derogatory word on caste certificates

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response of the Centre and Delhi government seeking to direct the authorities not to use an alleged derogatory word for the members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes communities while issuing their caste certificates.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices and asked the Central and Delhi governments to file their replies to the petition. As the counsel for the authorities sought time to seek instructions and file replies, the court listed the matter for further hearing on August 31.

The petition filed by Akhil Bhartiya Gihara Samaj Jagriti Parishad, through its president Sudhir Kumar Gihara, said the caste certificates issued by the government contained undignified and humiliating terms and they had approached the authorities to remove the alleged derogatory word but no efforts were made to redress the grievances.

The petition, filed through advocate Prag Chawla, said the community is known as ‘Gihara' which is a recognised schedule caste and the authorities should not have any objection in issuing the caste certificate mentioning the caste as 'Gihara' instead of the alleged derogatory word.

It said use of such word will humiliate the very existence of being a human and against the equality and respect enshrined under the Constitution. "The respondents, whose task is to look after the effective implementation of the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and not to ignore thereby, violate its provisions by using derogatory expressions in the certificates issued to the members of such community," the plea alleged.