Matter came up during hearing in Nido Tania murder case

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the CBI to ascertain whether the term ‘chinki’, a derogatory term used against people hailing from the Northeast, has been notified as casteist remark in the law on the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST).

Justice Anu Malhotra sought clarification on the issue after the court was informed by a counsel that as per an RTI response no such notification has been ever issued by any public authority.

The issue cropped up during the hearing of two pleas by the CBI and the father of Nido Tania, the student from the Northeast who was killed in 2014 after being allegedly beaten by some persons in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, challenging a trial court’s decision to drop the charges under the SC/ST Act against the accused.

During the hearing, CBI prosecutor Rajdipa Behura said the eyewitness claimed the accused had used casteist words, including “chinki”, while referring to the victim. When the court sought to know if there was any notification of this word under the SC/SC (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the counsel for the accused said as per an RTI reply given to him there was no such notification.

The HC had in January 2015 sought the response of four adult accused Farman, Pawan, Sundar Singh and Sunny Uppal on Tania’s father Nido Pavitra’s plea against the trial court order. The CBI has also filed a similar petition in the matter.

The plea said the trial court had refused to frame charges against the accused under the provisions of SC/ST Act despite the entire assault being clearly motivated by the accused perceiving him as belonging to the Scheduled Tribe.