Woman employee sacked by BAU on caste issue wages legal battle

Ranchi, Dec 5 (UNI) A woman employee, sacked by Birsa Agriculture University, has waged a legal battle alleging that she has fallen victim to misinterpretation of an Apex court order.

Nina Bharti, who filed a writ petition in Jharkhand High Court, was working at the post of training associate plant protection whose appointment was cancelled by the authorities on the pretext that she did not belong to scheduled tribe category.

The BAU authorities said the petitioner did not come under the category of ST and she gave false caste certificate to the department.

However, the petitioner alleged that the order passed by the BAU was unconstitutional and illegal as they misinterpreted the order of the Apex court.

Saurav Arun, lawyer appearing on behalf of the petitioner, stated in the petition that his client's appointemnt was cancelled on November 30 without issuing any showcause notice and the authorities did not even give her any chance to reply.

Neena's father belonged to general category but the mother of the petitioner belonged to Oraon community which comes under the ST category.

According to the order of the Apex court, if a child is born after the wedlock of such type of parents and the head of the tribal society accepts it and the spouse who is of general category accepts all the rituals and customs of the tribe in that case the child would get the benefits which a tribal category gets.

The father of the girl accepted the rituals and customs of the tribal so the child comes under the reserved category, the petition said.

The petitioner obtained caste certificate from the district welfare officer here in 1998 after proper inquiry.

UNI