Court ruling challenges India's caste system

Reading Judge Nazir Ahmed Fida's comments makes one want to puke.............................................:(

An appeal court judge in Jammu and Kashmir decided that all Indians were worthy of respect and entitled to a good reputation regardless of their wealth or social status.

The ruling amounts to a direct challenge to India's caste-focused society in which attacks on 'untouchables' or dalits because of their 'polluting presence' are common.

There are cases of dalits killed for daring to drink water from the same well as their caste 'superiors' or to complain when their daughters are raped.

Against this background, the ruling has been hailed as revolutionary.

Mushtaq Ahmed Mir, an unemployed man from Kupwara, decided to sue the Kashmiri newspaper Tameel-i-Irshad after it published a false report claiming he was a defendant in a murder case. He had asked the judge to waive the court fee in the case because he was too poor to pay it.

The judge threw out his case with a ruling that the poor did not have reputations which could be damaged in newspaper reports.

"When the plaintiff is not even in a position to pay the lawsuit fee, he cannot seek damages for defamation, " Judge Nazir Ahmed Fida said. "The dignity of a person of low integrity will not be lowered further in case his name appears in a defamatory piece of news."

Mr Mir's lawyer said he was shocked by the decision, made despite the judge's acknowledgement that the news report was untrue, and launched an immediate appeal.

In his appeal ruling, High Court Judge Muzaffar Hussain Attar reprimanded the original trial judge and said his ruling had been "offensive to conscience." "The respect and reputation of a person is not dependent upon how much wealth he has accumulated," he said. If only the rich were entitled to respect "a great disservice will be done to society," he added.

Supreme court lawyer Zafar Shah last night welcomed the ruling which he said had narrowed the gap between the equal rights promised to every Indian in the country's constitution and the reality where "the respect and dignity of a person is determined by [his] economic and social status."

Dalit leader Dr Udit Raj said while the ruling was "revolutionary" and a "symbolic victory" for the poor and low-castes, the reality in India was closer to the original trial judge's ruling.

"It's impossible for the poor, minorities and low castes to get justice. The trial judge should be dismissed, but his ruling is closer to reality. There is some way to go before dalits get the respect they're entitled to under the constitution. Our people are hypocrites," he said.

Telegraph