Ketan Koradia’s father Dalpat, mother Jasu (second from right) and sister at their home in Ahmedabad. Courtesy: Javed Raja, The Indian Express
Can there be Caste Discrimination even within our Courts?
Ketan Koradia’s suicide on April 4, 2016 in Ahmedabad provides a shocking answer.
A 31-year-old Dalit who worked as a clerk in an Ahmedabad court, Ketan took his life after experiencing everyday discrimination . In the FIR, his father alleged five court officials – C K Trivedi, G J Shah, R P Barot, K C Bhavsar and Bhati Saheb – were responsible for his son's death. "To harass Ketan, he was transferred without any order to court number 7. Again, he was transferred to court number 14 in February without giving any reason, which depressed him further," his father said in the FIR.
At the condolence meeting after his death, as colleagues of Ketan Koradia called for an end to “caste-based discrimination”, back home, his parents recalled how a boy who had made them proud slid into “depression” because he was “harassed” by co-workers. The condolence meeting for Ketan began at 3 pm April 5, the courtroom was packed. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate M F Khatri sat in the middle of about a hundred staff members, mostly clerks. "The true condolence to Ketan would be to talk about casteist discrimination and burden of too much work. He was transferred to this court's bench despite the fact that he had no knowledge of how courts work. He only knew accounts," said a young employee. Another said, "Caste-based discrimination does happen here. I won't name anyone but a judge remarked about a clerk, 'Aa toh adivasi che (he is a tribal)' to indicate that the clerk was not competent. This is simply not done."
Before taking his own life on the night of April 4, a Sunday, who was posted as a junior clerk in the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Ahmedabad’s Gheekanta area, is reported to have written down names of five of his colleagues who allegedly harassed him by making casteist remarks. “They (the accused) once broke an earthen pot after my son drank water from it. They would never share a meal with my son and would keep him away while eating lunch in office. His colleagues would address him as a Dalit or a BC (backward caste). He dealt with this on a daily basis ever since he joined work,” his 50-year-old father Dalpat Koradia said, sitting at his home in Danilimda, a predominantly Dalit neighbourhood. “When he was born, we had nothing. My wife and I used to sell clothes on a handcart and we raised Ketan and his sister Sangeeta with great difficulty.
He got the court job at a salary of Rs 18,000 per month. We were so happy,” Dalpat said. A relative said Ketan had got engaged to a teacher in February, and that “he was happy”.Ketan’s mother Jasu said he was a bright student who finished M.Com and got a government job in 2013. Meanwhile, a look at the room where he hanged himself seemed to suggest Ketan was looking for another job, and study books and an admit card pointed to him having taken an exam for the deputy mamlatdar’s post in March last year. One of his friends confirmed he was “unhappy” in his current job.
Shuddhikaran in the Allahabad High Court in 2000
Fourteen years ago, in year 2000, The Times of India, had reported on August 5 how a Dalit Judge had appealed in the Supreme Court against his compulsory retirement in the aftermath of an incident in which his courtroom was washed with `Ganga jal' by his `upper' caste successor. The incident took place in Allahabad when Bharthari Prasad, then additional sessions judge, was transferred to another court and replaced by A K Srivastava in June 1998. Newspaper reports then said Srivastava had got the entire chamber and its furniture washed with `Ganga jal' because it was previously occupied by a judicial officer belonging to a Scheduled Caste.
Acting on the reports, the sessions judge summoned Bharthari Prasad and asked him to contradict the charge. Since he had “no hand or role'' in the publication of the news reports, Prasad said he could not refute them. Upon this, the sessions judge ordered an inquiry. The court's staff confirmed the reports that the chamber and its furniture were indeed washed.
The room's new incumbent, Srivastava, had thereafter also admitted that he got the chamber washed but pleaded he had got it done because he was an asthma patient. He, however, denied `Ganga jal' was used for the purpose. Curiously, the inquiry officer did not record the statements of those who had actually conducted the `cleansing operation'.
A heart patient undergoing treatment at Jaslok hospital at Mumbai and advised to get a pacemaker fixed, Prasad was thereafter transferred to Mainpuri within a month. Soon he was locked in a long legal battle with the government as he refused to assume charge at Mainpuri. He was suspended, chargesheeted and subsequently compulsorily retired. The Allahabad high court did not set aside the retirement order nor did it ask the government to allow Prasad to retain his official residence for areasonable period of time.
Prasad's counsel, R K Jain, had then argued before a Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice A S Anand that Prasad's was a case which demonstrates that "class bias still persists against the members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.'' Justice Anand admitted Prasad's petition for hearing and ordered that he not be evicted from his official residence till further orders. Jain had also pointed out to the court that Prasad had suffered an adverse entry in his annual confidential report on the ground that he was "punctual and dismissed cases which lacked evidence''.