Madras High Court Justice G.R. Swaminathan on Friday said though he recently delivered a judgment in favour of certain Scheduled Caste cooks, as an “anti-climax”, the Tamil Nadu government has preferred an appeal against the verdict.
Addressing law college students at a function organised at Raj Bhavan to commemorate the 133rd birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar, he said, “I have to tell you a joke now.” He then cited a case in which the appointment of 10 cooks belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) was cancelled due to irregularities. The government counsel had argued that they were above the prescribed age of 35.
The judge said he read the rules and came up with an interpretation to conclude that by virtue of an age relaxation of five years for SCs, they could be appointed until they reach 40, and it was wrong to quash their appointment.
“I gave a judgment in favour of the SC. Now, comes the anti-climax. The Tamil Nadu government has gone on appeal that my judgment is wrong,” Justice Swaminathan said. When the ‘joke’ did not receive any response from the audience, he said: “You could laugh internally. The case is still pending.”
The judge said he was recalling this case to underline that the change in his heart was because of the life of Ambedkar. Underlining that he was born in a Brahmin family, the judge said: “For that very reason, I did not like reservations initially. Even I have written essays against reservations. If me, who was like that once, is completely supporting reservation now, Annal Ambedkar is the reason.”
Intending to share another thing that would be “controversial too”, the judge said he was born in 1968, and he knew only Tamil to an extent and English at a functional level and did not know any other language.
‘Learn multiple languages’
Underlining the need for students to learn multiple languages for growth in their career, the judge said: “Ambedkar wanted Sanskrit as the national language. If we develop negative thoughts in our minds against Sanksrit or Hindi, it is not good for our life and our career.
“But, if you take the case of former Union Minister P. Chidambaram, he was a master in Tamil, English and Hindi and had translated the speeches of leaders such as Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi when they visited Tamil Nadu. Because he is from the generation previous to mine [born before 1967],” he added.
In his address, Governor R.N. Ravi said, “After the British left, our people reduced Ambedkar to a caste leader. When he was alive, they felt threatened by the genius of this great man. People at the top and the then Prime Minister felt uncomfortable confronting him as he could not stand as a match to Dr. Ambedkar,” Mr. Ravi said.
National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Chairman M. Venkatesan charged that Ambedkar was being projected as a leader of the SC community only during the past 50 years in Tamil Nadu. Stating he had visited 24 States, he claimed that hate over caste leaders were not as much as it was in Tamil Nadu. “I feel that this is intentionally created in Tamil Nadu,” he alleged, adding that outside Tamil Nadu, not even one statue of Ambedkar was in a ‘cage’.
