SUPREME COURT ASKS TAMIL NADU TO GET RID OF TWO-TUMBLER SYSTEM
Rakesh Bhatnagar
An archaic social malpractice by adhering to the two tumblers system to discriminate between people from the “upper” and “lower caste” may be on its way out if Tamil Nadu government abide by the Supreme Court’s latest verdict.
The apex court has described the two-tumbler system as “highly objectionable” and has termed it as an offence under the SC/ST Act. Several tea shops and restaurants keep separate tumblers for serving tea and other beverages to Scheduled Caste people.
Criminal proceedings must be carried out against those practising such acts and they must be given harsh punishment if found guilty, a bench of justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra said.
SC said all administrative officers will be held accountable. The bench also took strong exception to derogatory words used to address “low caste” people in the state and said use of ‘pallan’, ‘pallapayal’, ‘parayan’ or ‘paraparayan’ is an offence under the SC/ST Act. “It is just unacceptable in the modern age, just as the words Nigger or Negro are unacceptable for African-Americans,” SC said
(New Delhi, DNA, Apr 21, 2011)