Delhi court asks the police to submit a report after casteist question appears for public exam

A court here has asked the Delhi Police to submit a report on a plea seeking action against authorities for asking an alleged casteist and derogatory question in the examination for recruitment of primary teachers in government schools here.

Special Judge S K Malhotra asked the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of Vivek Vihar in east Delhi to file a report by the next date of hearing and listed the matter for further hearing on December 13.

The plea filed by complainant advocate Satya Prakash Gautam said he came to know about the objectionable question, which was asked by Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) in the exam, after going through a news item and he got a copy of the question paper from social media.

The examination was conducted by DSSSB on October 13 and the multiple choice question number 61 in the Hindi Language and Comprehension paper had allegedly used some derogatory terms for describing the Dalit community.

After the controversial question created an uproar, the board had said in a statement that the question with "casteist" undertones appeared due to an "inadvertent error" and added that the question would not be considered during the evaluation process.

The plea, seeking lodging of FIR against the persons concerned, said senior officials who were part of the examination committee, allegedly selected derogatory and insulting question.

"They want to create an atmosphere of social disharmony and officers like them promote enmity between different groups on the grounds of caste and community," it alleged, while seeking to summon and try the persons concerned under the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Information and Technology Act and Indian Penal Code.

It also sought appropriate action against the SHO of Anand Vihar Police Station under the SC/ST (POA) Act for not lodging an FIR in the matter.