TN judge vacancies leave caste murder victims' kin struggling to cope

"I once had faith in India's legal system, but not anymore," rued 55-year-old R Usaikumar, whose 19-year-old son fell victim to a caste crime five years ago.

February 25, 2024 marks the fifth anniversary of the tragic death of U Rajamani from a Dalit community in Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district.

His aspirations of becoming an engineer were abruptly ended when a group of six Hindu boys belonging to the Thevar community allegedly took Rajamani's life.

Upper caste violence

His offence? He questioned the boys for throwing flowers from a funeral procession at the homes of Dalits.

Police in Tirunelveli booked the upper-caste boys under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) (SC ST) Act, 1989 and the chargesheet was registered with Tirunelveli’s Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Court, which handles offences committed against SC/ST people from the districts of Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari.

However, justice remains elusive for the family, as the court has been without a judge for five months. The accused are out on bail.

A grieving father

Choking on his tears, Usaikumar, employed as an attendant in a government hospital, lamented to The Federal: “I anticipated their conviction within two years. Yet, we've only had two hearings in the PCR court over the past five years. I have lost all hope.”

This isn't the first instance of the court being without a judge. Before Justice V Padmanabhan presided over the court in 2022, the position was not filled for a two-year period, say complainants and advocates.

In these five years, Usaikumar’s life has changed completely. Fearing for the lives of his two other sons and his wife, the family relocated to a different city.

On the run

“We have moved from our own house to a rental one. My wife is depressed, unable to recover from the trauma of our eldest son’s death,” Usaikumar lamented. But the accused live in the same locality and are committing more crimes with impunity, he alleged.

“They now abuse Dalits and threaten them. Caste related crimes are booked on them but what’s the point when justice is delayed?” asked Usaikumar, who filed multiple petitions with the Chief Minister’s Cell and Tamil Nadu police seeking speedy justice.

Unending violence

Between June and October 2023, Tirunelveli reported 15 cases of caste violence, according to news reports. The violence is so severe that Dalit activists are urging the state government to declare the district 'caste-atrocity-prone'.

“Not only is the government mum over the declaration, but the district’s judicial system is in a state of apathy, providing no solution to the victims of caste crime,” said Dalit rights activist Murugan Kanna.

Another murder

On June 12, 2019, M Ashok, the 26-year-old district treasurer of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), was allegedly murdered by a 13-member gang from the Maravar caste, a Backward Class.

A scuffle broke out a month before the incident when the former was carrying a bundle of grass on a two-wheeler with his mother. “The grass brushed against the Maravar youth, who were enraged and attacked Ashok’s mother,” said Murugan Kanna, who is helping the family with legal proceedings.

Following the tiff, the police remanded the youth. When they were released on bail a month later, the gang allegedly hanged Ashok to death. Seven of them were booked under the Goondas Act and the SC/ST Act. Tirunelveli’s PCR Court was proceeding with the case.

That’s when Justice Padmanabhan was promoted and transferred five months ago, resulting in an abrupt pause in the legal proceedings.

Justice denied

“It is so difficult to see the accused walk free in the village. They committed the crime with impunity and justice should be served at the earliest,” a distraught member of the dead man’s family said.

“If the judge was not transferred, the trial would have been completed by now. When witness examination dates were about to be decided, the judge was transferred,” said Sudalai Raj, a CPI(M) activist in Tirunelveli who is helping the family with the case.

What rules say

The provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, mention that the state government should establish an adequate number of courts to ensure that cases under the act are disposed of within two months.

While the SC/ST Act mandates a special court for every district, the Tirunelveli PCR court, which deals with cases from three districts, has no judge.

“Cases from Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Kanyakumari are take up by this court. Currently, there are more than 600 pending cases in the trial stage,” said K Kandasamy, a public prosecutor.

In 2019 alone, there were 200 cases with chargesheets in this PCR court. Imagine the caseload now, remarked K Palani, the Tirunelveli district treasurer of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front.

A vacant seat at the PCR court also means an increase in the rate of occurrence of crimes. “The delay in the legal proceedings gives ample time for the accused to threaten complainants and witnesses. Witnesses have backed out in many cases,” Palani said.

Get a judge

Many felt that injustices could be curbed if the court was active. In July 2023, K Muthiah, a Dalit teenager, was allegedly murdered for falling in love with a girl belonging to the Nadar community.

While the initial FIR accessed by this reporter had booked three people under the SC/ST act, these were later altered without intimating the complainant.

“Not only did the police change the names of the accused, they also removed the provisions of SC/ST act and filed the case based on the sections of IPC (murder). This is nothing but diluting the gravity of a caste crime,” Palani said.

He added that they could have filed a petition if the court had been functional.

Ugly reality

“I gave the names of the people I saw at the spot of the murder. But later, the police changed their names. Where do I fight these violations? I have no hope left about the judicial system,” said B Kanniappan, Muthiah’s father.

As per the SC/ST Act, witnesses should be examined in the court within 90 days of the chargesheet being registered. But that seems to be a utopian idea at the PCR court in Tirunelveli. And, justice delayed could be justice denied.