The Madras High Court on Thursday said that the recent Assembly election results in Tamil Nadu showed that people could be convinced to vote without considering the caste or community of candidates. (Saravanan v. State)

Justice B Pugalendhi of the Madurai Bench made the observation while granting bail to a Sub-Inspector of Police accused of helping his son after an alleged honour killing in Tirunelveli.

"The recent assembly election results in the state of Tamil Nadu have shown that people can indeed be convinced to vote without considering the caste or community of the contestants. In fact, a government has been formed by largely nullifying the factors of caste. It must be remembered that the state can claim “true change” only when the mindset of the people is also changed. Therefore, this government shall take the responsibility and initiative to eradicate caste from the minds of the people."

The order was passed in a bail plea filed by Saravanan, the father of the main accused in the alleged honour killing of Kavin, an engineering graduate who was in a relationship with Saravanan’s daughter.

Justice B Pugalendhi said that honour killing was the “extreme reflection of casteism” and noted that casteism divides society. The Court said that 59 honour killings had been reported in Tamil Nadu over the past 10 years.

“Casteism has become deep rooted in the minds of the people and it is spoiling the entire system,” the Court said.

It added that Saravanan or his family alone could not be blamed when casteism was prevalent in the minds of people generally.

“No matter how powerful or privileged a person is, everyone is experiencing casteism in one form or another. Even we Judges are not spared from the same. Motives are attributed to our orders on the basis of caste, even though the cases are being decided on the basis of merit,” the Court said.

Justice Pugalendhi also said leaders such as K Kamaraj, Muthuramalinga Thevar and VO Chidambaram were now being projected on communal lines. The Court said that this mindset had to change and that only the State could bring about such change.

“This mindset of the people has to be changed and the State alone can bring about such a change. The State has to take strong initiative for the same. However even certain political parties are adding fuel to this social evil by using caste to mobilise votes,” the Court said.

The Court further said caste-based mindset was more prevalent in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu. It referred to a committee headed by retired Justice K Chandru, which was constituted after violence among school students, and noted that its recommendations appeared to have not been fully implemented. It added that laws like the SC/ST Act had not yielded the expected results and that reforms must begin at the school level to change the mindset of the younger generation.

“There is truly no ‘honour’ in honour killings and it is a shameful act,” the Court said.

The Court noted that the available material was not sufficient to presume that Saravanan had an active role in the commission of the offence. It also recorded that he had been in jail for 10 months, the investigation was complete and the proceedings against him had been stayed in a quashing petition. It thus granted bail on a bond of ₹1 lakh with two sureties.

Saravanan was represented by Advocate Ananth.

The State was represented by Government Counsel D Venkatesh.

The defacto complainant was represented by Advocate C M Arumugam.

[Read Judgment]