- In Bhimappa Jantakal @ Bhimanna & Ors. v State of Karnataka and ANR, the Karnataka High Court has held that if a person's one parent belongs to a Schedule Caste while other to a forward caste, it will not be assumed that they belong to the former's caste.
- In order to register a complaint under the Schedule Caste & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Of Atrocities) Act, 1989, such a person will have to specify and plead that they belong to the Schedule Caste.
- Justice M. Nagaprasanna, while adjudicating on the matter said that the status of a child born from parents belonging to scheduled and forward castes, will have to be pleaded before the Court and the same will not be considered axiomatic.
- In this case, the respondent, Ramesh Gavisiddappa Ginageri, alleged that the petitioners name-called him because of his caste and thereafter assaulted him. Accordingly, he filed a FIR in the local police station.
- In response to this, the petitioners filed a discharge application u/s 227 CrPC before the Sessions Judge and contended that the complainant belongs to the Vishwakarma Caste, which is not a Scheduled Caste.
- Further, the father of the complainant belongs to a forward caste and hence, he is not entitled to file a complaint under the SC/ST Act.
- The counsel of the petitioners also said that the wound certificate produced by the complainant does not show any external injuries and therefore, the case of assault and intimidation cannot be made.
- The Court observed that the complainant is bald and vague and doesn't contain any fact about the charges pressed.
- Accordingly, Justice Nagaprasanna allowed the petition filed by the alleged accused seeking to quash the proceedings carried against them by the complainant u/s 323, 505, 506 r/w Section 34 of IPC and Section 3(1) (10) of SC/ ST Act.
- While deciding on the question whether the complainant belongs to the Scheduled Caste, the Court relied on the Apex court's judgment in Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika v. State Of Gujarat.
- According to the precedents, a child born out of an inter-caste marriage will have to plead before the Court and prove that they belong to the Scheduled Caste.
- The SC/ST Act will not be provoked merely because the mother of the complainant belongs to a Scheduled Caste.
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