SC upholds Dalit scholars’ right to compensation for loss of research data | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court last week upheld a 2023 order of the Bombay high court, directing the Nagpur collector to assess the quantum of damage suffered by Dalit researchers, Kshipra Uke and Shiv Shankar Das, on account of loss of their research data.

Uke and Das, both members of Scheduled Caste communities and PhD holders from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, had approached the high court claiming that they had not received compensation from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for loss of their research data that was allegedly stolen and destroyed.

The researchers had told the high court that they were engaged in a research project and had generated research data of up to 500 samples from their survey on socio-political awareness of students from various educational centres in Nagpur. The couple alleged that while they were out of the city, the son of the owner of their house, who belongs to another caste, in connivance with the Bajajnagar police station, broke the locks of the premises where the couple resided and took away raw research data by stealing the couple’s laptop. The high court in its order had observed that a charge-sheet in the criminal investigation had been filed before a special court in Nagpur.

The researchers told the high court that although they had complained to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste, no action was taken by it, and they had to file a writ petition seeking directions to initiate an inquiry on their complaint. The National Commission, which initiated inquiry after the direction of the court, awarded to the couple compensation for loss due to damage to their intellectual property as provided by the Atrocities Act and set up a 3-member special investigation committee headed by a joint commissioner of police to take action in the matter.

While directing the Nagpur district collector to assess compensation, a bench comprising justice Vinay Joshi and Valmiki Sa Menezes had held that the ‘intellectual property’ that may have been subject matter of a crime and atrocities committed against Dalits could be construed as property for the purpose of granting compensation in terms of the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act 1989.