Athawale to challenge HC ‘dalit’ order

Mumbai: Union minister of state for social justice Ramdas Athawale has declared that he will approach the Supreme Court against the Bombay high court order not to use the word “Dalit”. Mr Athawale said that the word was the identity of the larger society in the country, and that banning it was in a way against the identity of this society.

The Nagpur bench of the HC had given the decision while hearing a petition on the issue. Based on the ruling, the ministry of information and broadcasting had issued a notice to media institutions. “It is accordingly advised that the media refrain from using the nomenclature ‘Dalit’ while referring to members belonging to the scheduled castes, in compliance with the directions of the hon’ble Bombay high court, and the constitutional term ‘scheduled caste’ in English and its appropriate translation in other national languages alone be used for all official transactions,” the I&B notice read.

Mr Athawale has decided to challenge the Bom-bay high court order in the apex court. “Dalit is a word of identity for a larger society of India. It has been used in the social context and in literature. It is also a part of the government documents. The Republican Party of India (RPI) will move the SC against the order and request it to lift the ban,” he said.