National Scheduled Caste Commission Endorsed Dalit Christians’ Rights

National Schedule Caste Commission (NSCC) asserted its commitment to the cause of all Dalits (down–trodden) from various religions. The commission has promised that it would examine the issues in the Justice R.N Misra recommendation after a high powered Christian delegation submitted a memorandum to the commission.

Dr. Buta Singh, the Chairman of NSSC has assured the high powered Christian delegation which includes representatives from All India Christian Council (AICC) and All India Catholic Union (AICU) that the commission will do all it can for the betterment of the Dalits. The delegation that met the Chariman was led by Dr. John Dayal, Member of National Integration Council, Gov't of India, who is also General Secretary of AICC, Issac Behera, Advocate Edward Arokio Doss and C. Francis.

The delegation reportedly told Buta Singh that two previous chairmen of the SC Commission, who were nominated by the then Bharatiya Janata Party and who had allegiance to the Hindutva groups, had spoken against Dalit Christians and Muslims out of political bigotry, without going into the merits of the case.

According to a Press statement issued by Dr. John Dayal, the meeting came immediately after the Government of India, through additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, told the Supreme Court of India bench headed by Chief Justice, that it was awaiting a report from the National Scheduled Caste Commission, a statutory body, to give its opinion on the issue of Scheduled rights for Dalit Christians. The Supreme Court on July 19 resumed hearings on a Public Interest writ litigation challenging the Presidential Order of 1950, which denies scheduled rights to Christians and Muslims converted from the former untouchable castes.

Buddhist and Sikhs, who were also excluded earlier, were restored scheduled rights by previous Congress and United Front governments through legislation in Parliament after protracted agitation.

The demand of Dalit Christians rights was initiated a year ago after the writs were filed in the Supreme Court by the Public Interest Litigation center of former Union Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, Vellore lawyer D David, a Dalit, and Br Jose Daniel's Dalit movement, the Union Government urged the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities (NCRLM) to examine the issue.

The NCRLM headed by former Chief Justice of India Ranganath Misra gave its report to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. In the report NCRLM stated that it accepted the demands of the Dalit Christians (and also Dalit Muslims) that they suffered from the impact of caste in Indian society and therefore should be given the privileges and the protection of law given to people of the Scheduled Caste of the Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh Faiths.

On the recommendation of the Justice Misra Commission, Supreme Court hearing on July 19 through the Chief Justice has given Government of India eight weeks time to come before the Court again to disclose its decision on the issue.

The final hearing in the Court is likely to come up in August 2007.

Therefore, it is an important step in the right direction for NSSC to have endorsed Dalits’ demand. Now, if the government give a green signal it is expected that the next hearing in the Supreme Court will go through easily and thus giving in to what the minority Dalits rightly deserved.

Related News:
Supreme Court requests Gov't final view on Dalit Christians' Quota