The complainant alleged that the director and other faculty members of IIM-B named in the FIR had intentionally disclosed his caste in the public domain and caused humiliation and caste discrimination against him in the institute.
| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K
The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday stayed the investigation based on the FIR registered against the director of the Indian Institute of Management-Bengaluru and seven faculty members for alleged caste-based discrimination and humiliation of an associate professor by disclosing the information in the public domain that he belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the interim order on the petition filed by IIMB director Rishikesha T. Krishnan, dean-faculty Dinesh Kumar, and faculty members G. Shainesh, Srinivas Prakhya, Sreelata Jonnalagedda, Rahul De, Ashis Mishra, and Chetan Subramanian.
The MICO Layout police in Bengaluru registered the FIR on December 20 based on a complaint filed by Gopal Das, an associate professor.
The FIR was registered under Section 3 (1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled extent and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for alleged atrocities like insulting and abusing complainant, and under Section 351(2) and 351(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for alleged criminal intimidation. It was alleged that the director and other faculty members named in the FIR had intentionally disclosed the complainant’s caste in the public domain and caused humiliation and caste discrimination against him in the institute.
However, appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Udaya Holla pointed out that the complainant started making allegations only after the institute did not promote him due to complainants of harassment from some students pursuing PhD studies and a committee had found substance in the allegations made by the students. Stating that the petitioners had not made any public disclosure of the caste of the complainant, Mr Holla contended that Mr Das himself had disclosed the caste in his bio-data.
Other proceeding
The Court had, on December 20, 2024, stayed the proceedings initiated way back in July 2024 against the director and five faculty members of the IIM-B before the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE) Cell, Karnataka, on the same allegations. Also, the Court had on July 18 stayed the proceedings before the DCRE against Devi Prasad Shetty, a cardiac surgeon who is the chairman of the Board of Governor of IIM-B.
Published – December 31, 2024 11:42 pm IST