BENGALURU: Karnataka high court has stayed proceedings against officials and faculty members of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) in a caste-discrimination case on the grounds that the agency which issued notice did not have the authority to investigate harassment cases.
The case refers to alleged caste discrimination of Gopal Das, a Dalit associate professor, by the institute.Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE), Bengaluru, had issued notice to the premier institute’s director and professors.
In an interim order, Justice Hemant Chandanagoudar said Section 7(a) of Karnataka Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (Reservation of Appointment etc) Rules, 1992, stipulates that DCRE can prosecute a person, who’s obtained a caste certificate fraudulently, (but) has no authority to enquire into the allegations of harassment of a person belonging to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe community.
“Therefore, the impugned notice issued by the DCRE, prima facie, lacks authority,” he said in an order on December 20, and fixed next hearing for the second week of January.
The court has stayed proceedings against IIM-B director Rishikesha T Krishnan, and professors Dinesh Kumar, Sreelata Jonnalagadda, Rahul De, Ashis Mishra and Chetan Subramanian.
Mico Layout police have also registered an FIR based on Gopal Das’s complaint, invoking Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Ordinance, 2014, and Sections 351(2) and 351(3) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, based on the same allegations against the faculty members.
The faculty members have challenged the FIR in a separate petition before the high court.
