Indian courts can airbrush caste out of atrocity verdicts entirely

Evidence

When the lower court finally pronounced a judgement, it sentenced the main perpetrators to death but refused to invoke the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act—the judge held that the Khairlanji massacre was a crime spurred by a desire for ‘revenge’. He said there was no evidence of rape and no caste angle to the killing. For a judgement to weaken the legal framework in which it presents a crime, for which it then awards the death sentence, makes it easy for a higher court to eventually reduce, or even commute, the sentence. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 31

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence that legal recognition of caste is itself contested—relevant to scaling and success of annihilation.