National Commission of Scheduled Castes has summoned the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University over the allegations of a Dalit teacher that he was insulted in a school under the university. The complaint was lodged in 2018 after Harendra Kumar, a Dalit and a former guest teacher who taught in the Jamia Middle School under the university, where he had claimed that he was “insulted and humiliated” by the headmaster of the school. Kumar also accused that the headmaster Mohammad Mursaleen addressed him by his caste infront of other teachers. The complaint was filed after guest teacher Kumar was removed from the job in 2018.
The summon issued by the commission said, “I am directed to refer to the subject mentioned above and to say that the Hon’ble Chairman of this Commission has fixed a hearing in this case with you in person on 13.10.2021 at 11 am in his chamber at 5th Floor, Lok Nayak Bhavan, New Delhi.”
It also mentioned that exceptions from personal appearance in hearing would not be granted except in exceptional circumstances.
A Delhi court in 2019 had ordered Delhi Police to register an FIR after the complaint was filed by Harendra Kumar. Kumar had claimed that casteist slurs were used by the headmaster several times, and he was made to do work outside his “protocol”. He had to approach the court to register his FIR as the police had failed to do so for one year after filing the complaint. Harendra Kumar had also approached the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the Jamia Millia Islamia Vice-Chancellor.
.“I was appointed as a guest teacher in 2017, and was removed from my post in March 2018 without any reason. During my tenure, the headmaster humiliated me continuously by making me do all kinds of work including making tea, washing utensils, hanging curtains in the lab, etc. On more than one occasion, the headmaster used casteist slurs to address me,” Harendra Kumar had said.
On the other hand, headmaster Mohammad Mursaleen has claimed that the allegations were “false and baseless”, and that Kumar was using his SC identity to take “revenge”. He said that police probe has already proved that all allegations made by Kumar are false.
