SC warns Haryana of contempt action for not cooperating with panel probing ‘social boycott’ of Dalits

The Supreme Court has warned the State of Haryana that it would initiate contempt of court proceedings if the state government does not cooperate with a court-appointed panel investigating alleged social boycott of Dalits by a ‘dominant’ community at Bhatia village in Hansi tehsil of Hisar.

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After perusing a letter dated January 31, 2025 written by Kamendra Prasad, DGP (retd), a Bench led by Justice MM Sundresh said it depicted a sorry state of affairs.

“Despite efforts being undertaken, the state is not willing to cooperate…We make it clear that any lack of cooperation on the part of the state would lead to the initiation of contempt proceedings,” the Bench said on Tuesday, posting the matter for further hearing after six weeks.

The Haryana government counsel assured the Bench that all cooperation, including the requisite costs of travel and arrangements for stay of the officers appointed by the court to undertake this exercise, would be extended.

On behalf of the petitioners, senior counsel Colin Gonsalves alleged that the top court's order had not been complied with and no logistic support was provided by the Haryana government, despite the two-member committee communicating thrice that they were ready to visit if the logistic support was provided.

In June 2017, a group of Dalit boys was allegedly assaulted by members of a 'dominant community' in a Hisar village over the use of a hand-pump. An FIR was lodged after six people were injured and hospitalised after being assaulted.

The Supreme Court had on October 16, 2024 ordered an independent probe by two former DGPs of Uttar Pradesh into allegations of social boycott of Dalits by a 'dominant community' in the village in Hisar.

Besides Prasad (1981 batch IPS), the top court had also appointed Vikram Chand Goyal, former DGP (1975 batch IPS) to make an independent investigation on the prevailing situation and file a status report to enable it to proceed further in the case.

It had directed the two former DGPs to file a status report in three months, indicating not only the present situation but also the measures, if any, needed to be taken in connection with the allegations of social boycott of Dalits levelled in 2017. “We make it clear that there is no bar for the pending trial to proceed,” it had said.

The Bench was in October last year informed that no untoward incident had taken place in recent times and "normalcy" was prevailing. It was also apprised of the fact that a charge sheet was filed on August 20, 2017 even as no arrests were made.

The Haryana police had given a clean chit to six of the seven accused and they were not named in the charge sheet.