Madras high court order in dalit woman case

MADURAI: Setting aside an order of a trial court discharging a senior official of the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowment (HR&CE) Department from a case registered against him for making unsavoury remarks against a dalit woman staff, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court directed the court to proceed with framing of charges and trial of the case and dispose the case as expeditiously as possible avoiding unnecessary adjournments. In his order on a revision petition filed by the woman challenging the lower court order, Justice P R Shivakumar pointed out the trial court judge had committed a grave error in coming to the conclusion that no prima facie case had been made out for the offences and the order of the trial court discharging him is erroneous. S P Shanthi, a dalit, was working as superintendent of the audit wing of HR&CE, at Madurai. On January 27 and 30, 2009, Balakrishnan, regional audit officer and Sivanesan, deputy chief audit officer conducted an inspection at the Meenakshiamman temple, Madurai. In her complaint, she alleged that during the course of the inspection, Balakrishnan made unsavoury remarks by pointing to the dress worn by her and also about her caste.Following the incident, the woman staffer preferred the criminal complaint.The case was investigated by the Madurai city police, who filed a charge-sheet against the duo before the trial court of the special judge under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. However, the trial court discharged Sivanesan. Hence, the state and the woman preferred the criminal revision petition in the Madurai bench seeking to set aside the trial court order. Allowing the criminal revision petitions, Justice P R Shivakumar said discharge before framing charge, shall be improper.“The order of trial court is set aside,” he said.