Calcutta HC Declines To Quash SC/ST Act Case Against Ex-Visva Bharati VC For Saying He Won't Allow SC, ST Or OBC Staff To Enter His Office

The Calcutta High Court has declined to quash a case registered under the SC/AT (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against former Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati University, Prof Bidyut Chakraborty, and other office bearers who were accused of making casteist remarks against an employee of the university at a meeting.Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta held: "The Central Conference Hall of the University within the four walls of the building of the University is considered to be a public place...The meeting was attended by senior officers ...in the said meeting, the petitioner no. 1 abused opposite party no. 2 and further made a statement that officers from SC, ST or OBC Categories would not be allowed to enter inside his office chamber and those categories officers would not make any mobile call to him from the date of meeting...such utterance prima facie constitutes an offence...Such restrictions based on specific caste identity, and the act takes place in a public view."BackgroundIn July 2023, Dr Prashan Meshram was working at Visva Bharati had filed a complaint against then-VC Chakraborty, and Mahua Banerjee in-charge of Public Relations Officer for the alleged humiliation he had to endure in a meeting in June 2023, when the accused abused him for filing a complaint to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and further uttered abusive remarks on his protest.It was alleged that the accused had also identified all the officers who belonged to Reserved Category by saying 'you are Scheduled Castes', 'you are OBC', 'you are Scheduled Tribes' etc. and directed his secretary to not allow these persons to contact him on his phone.It was further alleged that the accused had given false information of the complainant's involvement in financial defalcation to the media, to insult and humiliate him in the public eye, as well as severely damaged his career prospects.These factors led to the registration of the aforesaid case against the petitioner.Counsel for the state submitted that there was enough evidence on record for a prima facie case to be investigated against the petitioner, and thus the proceedings ought not to be quashed at the present stage.Acceeding to this argument, the court declined to quash the proceedings and held that the claims and counterclaims made by the parties against one another would only be able to be examined at trial.Case: Professor Bidyut Chakraborty and Ors. Versus The State of West Bengal & AnrCase No: C.R.R. 2599 of 2023Click here to read order

Calcutta HC Declines To Quash SC/ST Act Case Against Ex-Visva Bharati VC For Saying He Won't Allow SC, ST Or OBC Staff To Enter His Office

Srinjoy Das

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