MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court (HC), on Tuesday, issued a notice to the State government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to the authorities concerned to prevent caste discrimination in Pudhupatti village in Karambakudi block of Pudukkottai.
The litigant, R Selvan, a member of Periyar Ambedkar Makkal Kazhagam, submitted that nearly 150 families belonging to Scheduled Caste (Parayar) live in the Pudhupatti village and most of them are daily wage workers. The village has three barbershops and a laundry shop run by other community members, he added.
"For the past 20 years, dominant caste members of the village have been preventing the Parayar community from availing the services of the said barbershops. They have been forced to visit Karambakudi town to get haircuts," Selvan alleged.
Citing Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995, he wanted the court to direct the State government to depute authorities to visit the village, identify the caste atrocities and take appropriate action against the same.