Atrocities Act misuse: High Court orders to recover Rs 1.5 lakh from teacher

The high court has directed the state government to recover Rs 1.5 lakh from a teacher from Bagalkot district for filing frivolous cases under the Atrocities Act by utilising the aid money granted under the statute for prosecuting such cases.

Justice M Nagaprasanna said that the state should scrutinize the papers before granting any aid so that the amount is spent on cases where members belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe, who actually suffer abuses, are given such aid, and not frivolous litigants.

The petition was filed by Shivalingappa B Kerakalamatti, a headmaster at Maradi Malleshwara High School, Muganur village, Hunagund taluk of Bagalkot district. Shivalingappa challenged the criminal complaint initiated by Chandru Rathod, who worked as a teacher under him.

The complainant Chandru Rathod was dismissed from service in 2012, and in January 2020, the high court directed his reinstatement with back wages. After this, Chandru Rathod filed several complaints against Shivalingappa.

The petitioner Shivalingappa stated that Chandru is in the habit of registering frivolous complaints. He further seeks assistance through the Social Welfare Department, and this has become a business for him to generate money out of public funds, the petitioner said.

Shivalingappa submitted that in the case challenged before the high court, though initially Chandru had claimed that there were three persons when he was abused by taking the name of his caste, in the further statement he mentioned that only Shivalingappa was present.

The court noted that if the complaint and the summary of the charge sheet are juxtaposed to be read in tandem, what would unmistakably emerge is that the complaint is glorified.

“...in the facts of the case, the happenings of the alleged incident in a public place or in a place of public view are doubtful, nor was there any deliberate intention to malign the complainant by taking the name of his caste. In the absence of all these ingredients and the judgment of the Apex Court, permitting further proceedings would become a repeated abuse of the process of law,” the court said.

The court further said, “What shocks the court is that every time the complainant registers a complaint against the petitioner, he approaches the Social Welfare Department and claims aid for continuing the litigation.”

For three crimes he has registered against the petitioner, all for the same offenses and all within a span of one year, legal aid of Rs 3,50,000 is paid to the complainant by the Social Welfare Department.

“This is paid out of public money, all in aid to register frivolous cases or frivolous cases being fought with the aid of the Government,” the court said, ordering the recovery of Rs 1.5 lakh granted to the complainant for prosecuting the case in hand.