Delegation Meet Law Minister, Press for Demand Action on Ranganath Mishra Commission Report

NEW DELHI, Apr. 13, 2010, 15:50 Hrs (CBCI News):

On the occasion of, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti, the delegation comprising representatives of National Coordination Committee for Dalit Christians (NCCDC) a joint programme of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) with Mr. Franklin Caeser, Mr. Solomon Raju and Mr. M Vijay Kumar of National Council of Dalit Christians met with hon’ble Minister for Law and Justice Sh. Veerappa Moilly and shared with him their pain and agony as till date no action has been taken by government on Additional Terms of Reference of Ranganath Mishra Commission Report (NCRLM Report) though the report had been submitted to the Prime Minister in May 2007.

The same delegation has also met with minister earlier in November 2009 and requested that government should table the Report in the Parliament and also file their reply in the PIL pending before the Supreme Court in this regard. It will be pertinent to state that said PIL was filed in the year 2004. However, despite the repeated assurances from government, no reply has been filed in the PIL till date and because of this reason PIL has been adjourned to July 2010 and matter has been delayed.

The Law Minister emphasised and informed representatives of CBCI - Fr. Cosmon Arokiaraj and from NCCI- Ms. Anjna Masih that the decision has to be taken by the Union Cabinet. In the meanwhile, the petitioner in PIL Sh. Franklin Caesar has got the documents through RTI which reveals that the Report has been submitted by Commission to the Prime Minister on 21st May 2007, but till date no decision has been taken on the recommendations regarding Additional Terms of Reference where it has been recommended that paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order 1950 should be wholly deleted and delink Schedule Caste status from religion and make the Scheduled Caste net fully religion neutral.