Jamia school teacher alleges casteism, Delhi court says file FIR

A Delhi court has ordered Delhi Police to register an FIR after a Dalit guest teacher who used to teach at Jamia Middle School approached the court claiming he was “insulted and humiliated” by the headmaster, who “addressed him by his caste” in front of many teachers last year.

Metropolitan Magistrate Rajat Goyal, in his order dated July 30, said that “on the basis of the allegations levelled, commission of cognizable offences under section 3 and 4 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 appears to have been committed” and thus it was “obligatory for the police to register an FIR in the matter”.

When contacted, Additional DCP (South East) Kumar Gyanesh said: “We are registering an FIR under court instructions. It will be registered under the SC/ST Act.”

The complainant, when contacted, claimed casteist slurs were used by the headmaster several times, and he was made to do work outside his “protocol”.

The complainant had to seek the court’s help to register the FIR since the complaint had been filed a year ago in May, shortly after he was disengaged from service. His counsel Sanjay Kumar Singh moved an application under Section156 of CrPC and submitted before court that the complaint was made on May 8, 2018, to SHO, Jamia Nagar and a month later to the DCP (South East). However, no action was taken.

The Metropolitan Magistrate had directed police to produce an action taken report, which showed that an enquiry was in fact conducted and staff members were examined.

Harendra Kumar, the complainant, also approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor, as the school is affiliated to the university.“I was appointed as a guest teacher in 2017, and was removed from my post in March 2018 without any reason. During my tenure, the headmaster humiliated me continuously by making me do all kinds of work including making tea, washing utensils, hanging curtains in the lab, etc. On more than one occasion, the headmaster used casteist slurs to address me,” Kumar claimed. “I was told that if I do all this, I will be made permanent…”

However, Headmaster (Officiating) Mohammad Mursaleen said the allegations were “false and baseless” and that Kumar was “using his SC identity” to take “revenge”: “None of what he has alleged is true. The DCP has already conducted an enquiry and found that it is all false.”

While Registrar A P Siddiqui did not respond to calls and texts, Jamia PRO Ahmed Azeem said he needed time till tomorrow to respond to the matter.

Courtesy : The Indian Express