Man who immolated himself on High Court campus belonged to SC community, not ST: State tells Madras High Court

The Tamil Nadu government told the Madras High Court on Monday that a man who immolated himself at the High Court campus earlier this month over denial of a community certificate, belonged to a Scheduled Caste (SC) and not to a Scheduled Tribe (ST), as he had claimed before his death. .Additional Advocate General J Ravindran submitted a status report before a Bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D KrishnaKumar stating the above.The status report, filed by the Kancheepuram Revenue Divisional Officer in compliance with a previous order of the Court, said that the district authorities had conducted a field visit, spoken to the deceased Velmurugan's neighbours, looked into old paper work, and concluded that he had belonged to the Scheduled Caste 'Kuravan' and not a Scheduled Tribe.They said they had also spoken to several relatives, neighbours, and associates of Velmurugan and his family, and that everyone had confirmed that he belonged to the SC community..On October 11 this year, 49-year-old Velmurugan doused himself with fuel and set himself ablaze behind the family court building that is housed within the High Court campus. Before lighting the match, Velmurugan shouted that he was frustrated with the Kancheepuram district authorities refusing to issue community certificates to his son and daughter. A day after, he succumbed to the burns at a government hospital in Chennai.The High Court subsequently took suo motu cognisance of the incident.On the last date of hearing, the Bench said that the authorities must visit the deceased's village and speak to his neighbours and local authorities to check if he did belong to the Narikuravar Scheduled Tribe, as claimed in the community certificate applications filed by his children that were rejected in September this year..On Monday, AAG Ravindran told the Bench that there had not been any lapse on part of the State or the Kancheepuram district authorities in dealing with the applications for community certificate that had been filed by Velmurugan's son, seeking that he and his siblings be declared as those belonging to the ST community. The High Court will hear the matter further on Tuesday.