Cases related to false claims of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe status having been made to secure government jobs are very common, but the Madras High Court on Friday came across a peculiar case where a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste had allegedly claimed to be an Other Backward Class (OBC) candidate to secure the job of a lecturer.
Justice P.N. Prakash refused to quash a First Information Report (FIR) registered against the former lecturer G. Suresh Kumar by the Puducherry Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (V&AC) unit based on a complaint lodged by the Principal of Pondicherry Engineering College, an institution promoted and fully funded by the Government of Puducherry, in December 2017.
According to the complainant, the engineering college had, in 2007, invited applications for five posts of lecturers of which four fell under the Open Category and one under OBC category. The accused had obtained the job by producing a OBC certificate though he actually belonged to a Scheduled Caste and the issue came to light only in a vigilance inquiry.
After joining the college as a lecturer, under OBC category, on July 3, 2007 and serving in the post for 51 days, the petitioner had resigned the job and left the college. However, the vigilance team got wind of the alleged crime and started sniffing around. It was only after its report was forwarded to the principal, the latter chose to lodge the complaint.
Though the petitioner’s counsel assailed the FIR citing 10 years of delay in lodging the complaint, the judge said: “Unlike blue-collar offences, white-collar offences will not come to light that easily. Therefore, in the present facts and circumstances of the case, it cannot be stated that there was delay in registration of the case by the police.”
He also brushed aside the other argument that the police could have chosen to register a FIR suo motu instead of forwarding their report to the principal. The judge said the police possibly wanted the principal to verify the college records and then lodge a complaint.
