Skip to main content

Top upper caste judges 'biased' towards Dalit colleagues: US Bar Association report

A high profile report prepared by the influential American Bar Association (ABA) Center for Human Rights, taking note of the fact that “in the 70-year history of the Indian Republic, only six Dalit judges have been appointed to the Supreme Court”, has taken strong exception to what it calls “lack of representation of Dalits” in the legal profession and the judiciary.
Titled “Challenges for Dalits in South Asia's Legal Community”, prepared by Anurag Bhaskar and Neil Modi, based on 74 interviews, out of which 32 respondents belong to the Dalit community, three are Adivasis, four belong to Other Backward Classes, three Muslims, and 32 other non-Dalits, the report quotes a respondent as noting that “the credibility of an institution such as the Supreme Court cannot flourish in a constitutional democracy if its marginalized communities do not explicitly express their trust in the institution.”
Referring to authoritative sources -- Kariya Munda Committee, a parliamentary committee on the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (2000); National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, chaired by Justice MN Venkatachaliah (2002); Parliamentary Standing Committee under the chairmanship of Dr EM Sudarsana Natchiappan (2006); and National Commission for Scheduled Castes (2016) -- the report says that as of 2011, there were only 24 judges belonging to SC/ST against a total of 850 judges in all the 21 High Courts, regretting, today, “Public data for High Courts and lower district judiciary could not be found.”
Quoting sitting and retired High Court upper caste judges on “persistence of implicit biases of upper-caste judges toward their colleagues from the Dalit community”, the report cites one of of them as stating how during his tenure as the Chief Justice in a State High Court “he faced resistance from his upper-caste colleagues whenever he considered a Dalit lawyer for appointment as a judge in that High Court.”
Quoting a retired upper caste Supreme Court judge, the report says, “Since Dalit judges in the lower judiciary get appointed through reservations/quotas, there is a bias against them in the higher judiciary that they are less meritorious, and thus do not get promoted easily”, adding, “This judge believed that reservations impact Dalit candidates negatively.”
According to the report, “Another retired Supreme Court judge, who was part of the Supreme Court collegium for about two years in the past decade, said that the main parameters for considering elevation were maintaining state-wide representation of High Court judges and their seniority at all levels. He added, as there were no Dalit judges with seniority in High Courts during his time on the bench, the issue of ensuring representation of Dalits in the Supreme Court was not discussed as part of the collegium.”
It quotes a former additional Solicitor General for India as sharing the same sentiment: “The fact that in the 70 years of its existence, the Supreme Court of India has seen only eight women judges and one Dalit Chief Justice is testament to the reality that the composition of our judiciary is not represented by the Dalit population.”
The report quotes another senior advocate and former Solicitor General for India as claiming that the situation “has drastically changed since the 1980s, and today “we see a substantial increase in the number of lawyers hailing from the Dalit community.” However, he also regrets, the members of the Dalit and Adivasi communities have not received adequate representation “since no systemic inclusionary arrangements were institutionalized.”
Citing three sitting High Court judges from upper castes, who “admitted that in lower courts caste can play a role in getting clients”, the report notes, “Often, some lawyers from the Dalit community hide their identity to get cases”, a fact “corroborated by another respondent from the Dalit community who shared that one of his relatives had changed his surname to a Brahmin surname in order to get clients.”
Pointing out that “since Dalits are one of the most disadvantaged social groups, they face barriers in access to quality legal education”, the report says, “A former Chief Justice of India remarked that most Dalit lawyers during his time did not study in English-medium schools; as a result, they were restricted to practicing in the lower courts as the higher courts require advanced proficiency in English… Because the medium of instruction in High Courts and the Supreme Court is English, many lawyers from the Dalit community did not have the option to start their practice before these constitutional courts.”
“Difficulties” faced by the Dalit community in the legal profession do not end here, says the report, pointing out, the bar associations in India have “historically been dominated by upper-caste males”. Thus, “A review of the profiles of current office holders and other officers of the Bar Council of India (BCI) suggests that it is comprised mainly of individuals from upper-caste backgrounds. Any scheme of the BCI or any bar association supporting Dalit lawyers in initial years could not be found.”
As a result of the “discrimination”, the report says, “Young Dalit lawyers lack access to equal opportunities in the legal sector, they are left with only limited options, leading them to create their own grassroots organizations advocating the Dalit community’s rights.” Worse, “lawyers from the Dalit/Adivasi community working on human rights cases at the grassroots level are being branded as Maoists or Naxalite in order to make them fall in line with the state administration.”
While there have been efforts to promote capacity of Dalit lawyers through organizations such as the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights and the National Dalit Movement for Justice, which have been working “with the criminal justice administration systems to address the issues of access to justice for those affected by atrocities and violence”, the report laments, “Most of the public prosecutors at district levels neither have knowledge of atrocities law nor are they sensitive towards the background of victims.”
Referring to anti-atrocity cases, the report quotes a Dalit lawyer practicing in the Supreme Court for more than a decade as stating that “quite often, he would experience differences in the approaches adopted by senior advocates in handling cases related to Dalits.” In one such instance, “three Supreme Court judges, who were considered liberal in their outlook, stopped him from making his submissions in cases of atrocities and affirmative action.” In another instance he was “stopped by the judge to read the facts in an atrocities case.”

Comments

TRENDING

Will Trump administration use US religious freedom report to further pressure India into submission?

Already under pressure from the Trump administration, which has reportedly asked India—successfully, some would say—to remove high tariffs on American products, there is reason to wonder whether Washington might use the recommendations of the latest United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Annual Report to further act against the Government of India.

Gujarat No 1 here too? Cops justify torture, insist: Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, migrants are 'naturally prone' to crimes

A new report, "Status of Policing in India Report 2025: Police Torture and (Un)Accountability", states that Gujarat tops the list of 16 states and one Union Territory, with 63% of its police personnel "strongly endorsing" torture. Furthermore, 49% of Gujarat’s police personnel were found to have what the report calls a "high propensity" for torture, considering it "necessary and acceptable" for obtaining information across various crime categories—second only to Jharkhand (50%). In sharp contrast, Kerala has the lowest percentage of police personnel "justifying" torture (3%) and the lowest "high propensity" for violence (1%).

A traditional Marxian view? Like nuclear weapons, AI poses 'direct existential threat' to human civilization

The other day, I was talking with YS Gill , whom I have known as an incisive analyst since my youth, when he, like me, was associated with the Communist Party of India (CPI). A passionate science activist committed to creating awareness of scientific thinking, he told me about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it would lead to mass unemployment. Predicting that AI would replace human intervention in India’s call centers, he estimated that about 70 lakh people would be rendered jobless.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Patriot, Link: How Soviet imbroglio post-1968 crucially influenced alternative media platforms

Adatata Narayanan, Aruna Asaf Ali Alternative media, as we know it today in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), didn't exist in the form it does today during or around the time I joined formal journalism at Link Newsweekly as a sub-editor in January 1979. However, Link, and its sister publication Patriot, a daily—both published from Delhi—were known to have provided what could be called an alternative media platform at a time when major Delhi-based dailies were controlled by media barons.

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

Martyrs’ Day at Sanand: Remembering Vinod Kinariwala amidst politics of remembrance

I was urged by a close relative, considered across my family as a binding force, to attend a grand ceremony on Martyrs' Day, March 23, along with four other relatives. The event, called Veeranjali (homage to martyrs), was to be held in an open space near Sanand town, about 15 kilometers from Ahmedabad. Martyrs' Day has been observed across India since independence, as it was on this day in 1931 that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were executed.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.