Untouchables win a landmark equality ruling

A LANDMARK legal ruling that granted India's downtrodden "untouchables" the right to defend their reputations has been hailed as a symbolic victory for the lower castes.

An appeal court judge in Jammu and Kashmir ruled all Indians were worthy of respect and entitled to a good reputation, regardless of their wealth or social status.

The ruling amounts to a direct challenge to India's caste-focused society in which attacks on "untouchables", or dalits, because of their "polluting presence" are common.

Dalits have been killed for drinking water from the same well as their caste "superiors" or for complaining when their daughters are raped. In this context, the court ruling has been hailed as revolutionary.

Mushtaq Ahmed Mir, an unemployed man from Kupwara, sued the Kashmiri newspaper Tameel-i-Irshad after it published a false report claiming he was a defendant in a murder case. He had asked the judge to waive the court fee in the case because he was too poor to pay it. The judge threw out his case, ruling the poor did not have reputations that could be damaged in newspaper reports.

"When the plaintiff is not even in a position to pay the lawsuit fee, he cannot seek damages for defamation," Judge Nazir Ahmed Fida said. "The dignity of a person of low integrity will not be lowered further [if] his name appears in a defamatory piece of news."

Mr Mir's lawyer said he was shocked by the decision, made despite the judge acknowledging the news report was untrue, and launched an appeal. In his appeal ruling, High Court Judge Muzaffar Hussain Attar reprimanded the trial judge and said his ruling had been "offensive to conscience".

"The respect and reputation of a person is not dependent upon how much wealth he has accumulated," he said. If only the rich were entitled to respect, "a great disservice will be done to society", he said.

A Supreme Court lawyer, Zafar Shah, said the ruling narrowed the gap between the equal rights promised to every Indian in the country's constitution and the reality where "the respect and dignity of a person is determined by [his] economic and social status".

Social commentator Pavan K. Varma said the ruling heralded "the beginning of change". "To say that someone who is poor can't have status reflects the mindset of another century, but old attitudes die hard," he said. "That the appeals judge threw out the ruling means there's a beginning of change. Caste is now standing on its head."

A Dalit leader, Udit Raj, said the ruling was a "symbolic victory" but the reality in India was closer to the original judge's ruling. "It's impossible for the poor, minorities and low castes to get justice. The trial judge should be dismissed … There is some way to go before dalits get the respect they're entitled to."