India’s Supreme Court to Consider Rights for Dalit Christians
Lower-caste Christians excluded from quota system for jobs and education
www.compassdirect.org
by Satya Kumar
 
DELHI, February 17 (Compass) -- India’s Supreme Court has decided to study the legal implications of denying job and education quotas for Dalit Christians.
 
“It is a crucial issue and we would examine the legal side ... on the basis of the rulings cited by the petitioner and the Attorney General,” an apex court bench comprised of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justice G.P. Mathur said on February 11.
 
With the decision, the Supreme Court turned down a government plea to keep the judiciary out of public policy issues. It is expected to review the matter when it re-convenes in four weeks.
 
Dalits occupy the lowest rung on India’s caste ladder. As such they are often denied access to certain types of employment and institutes of higher learning.
 
India’s quota system reserves a certain number of employment and educational placements for members of lower castes. Initially, Dalits converting to Hindusim, Sikhism or Buddhism were excluded from the reservation provision. After lobbying in recent years, the government amended the law so that followers of these religions were covered by the quota system. However, Dalit Christian and Muslim converts are still excluded.
 
About 26 percent of government jobs in India are reserved for the Dalits and other so-called “backward castes” with the aim of bringing them to the political and social mainstream.
 
However, while lobbying by Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist groups resulted in a favorable amendment to the existing law, a virulent campaign by Hindu nationalists has stalled such a concession for Dalit Christians.
 
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan is spearheading the issue in the Supreme Court on the basis of a petition filed by the Center for Public Interest Litigation.
 
“We are saying that this provision is unconstitutional,” Bhushan told Compass. “It discriminates against a person on the basis of his or her religion. Fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution say that there can be no discrimination on the basis of one’s religion.”
 
In court, India’s Attorney General Milon Banerjee said he had already asked the government to look at the matter “sympathetically,” India’s national daily The Hindu reported.
 
“It is a matter of policy and legislation and the courts should keep out of it,” he said, to which the Supreme Court bench replied, “It is a very important issue.”
 
Banerjee also revealed that the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had rejected a proposal to include Dalit Christians in the quota system in 2002, during their term of government.
 
“We were surprised that the Attorney General quoted in court the BJP government’s reluctance to come to the aid of Dalit Christians,” said John Dayal, president of the All India Catholic Union, in a press release issued on February 12.
 
“But nothing more was expected from the communal BJP regime.”
 
Dayal also applauded the Supreme Court’s intervention.
 
“It is a joyous day,” he wrote. “We hope that the Supreme Court will soon end the historic injustice that was done in 1950 to Dalits professing the Christian faith.”
 
Christians account for less than two percent of India’s billion-plus population.
 
Over the years, various memorandums have been presented to successive prime ministers and at many rallies held throughout the country in support of the long-pending demand of the Dalit Christians.