Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court issued show cause notice to four senior police officials for allegedly violating the Untouchability Act, following a petition filed by Valjibhai Patel of the Dalit Panthers. According to the petitioner, a book published in Rajkot and Bombay had printed articles defending the practice of untouchability. On May 2, 1989, the petitioner filed a police complaint with Astodia police station demanding action against the publishers of this book which, they said, had violated the Untouchability Act. However, in spite of repeated reminders the police had failed to take any action, they said. The petitioner cited a similar case of 1985 wherein a weekly published from Rajkot had defended untouchability. Here, too, the police had refused to take any action, though the Rajkot district sessions court had ordered action against the culprits.
A division bench of the High Court consisting of Justice N.B. Patel and Justice A.N. Divecha issued show cause notices to the DIG (Gandhinagar), Hira Lal, the city Deputy Police Commissioner (North), Fazal Guard, a former police inspector of Astodia police station, S.J. Gohil, and a retired police inspector of Rajkot, T.G. Mani. (Times of India, Feb.17)
