A Delhi court Tuesday asked a complainant to record his evidence in support of his plea seeking registration of an FIR against Union minister V K Singh for his alleged "dog" remark in the wake of the burning of two Dalit children in Haryana three years ago.
Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra allowed the complainant, Satya Prakash Gautam, a lawyer by profession, to record his evidence and posted the matter to January 14 next year.
"Complainant has filed certificate under section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act, along with other documents. Be taken on record. Put up for complainant's evidence on January 14, 2019," the court said.
The decision of the court came on a plea alleging that Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, had hurt the sentiments of the Dalit community by his October 21, 2015 remarks made on the murder of two children in Faridabad.
Singh had kicked up a storm with his alleged remarks that the government could not be blamed if someone threw a stone at a dog.
"If somebody throws a stone at a dog, then the government is responsible. It is not like that," he had allegedly said.
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The court had earlier allowed Gautam to withdraw his plea, while granting him liberty to file a fresh complaint on the issue. The lawyer had subsequently filed a fresh complaint that came up for hearing Tuesday.
Initially, a complaint was filed before a magistrate, who had on December 7, 2015 dismissed it, observing that no criminal offence was "ex-facie" made out against the minister.
The police had opposed the plea, saying no cognisable offence was made out against Singh for his alleged remarks on October 21, 2015.
Thereafter, Gautam had filed a revision petition, challenging the trial court's order and alleging that the magistrate "has only desperately tried to shield the proposed accused under various pretexts, including those not even on record, like the intention of the proposed accused, while making impugned statements, which were the basis of filing the present complaint".
The magisterial court had said that for no reason could Singh's statement be seen as one made to demean any caste or creed and it did not see it as an "analogy drawn between a dog (as an animal) and humans (of a caste or creed)".
It had earlier directed the police to file an action taken report (ATR) on the complaint seeking lodging of an FIR against Singh under the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The police, in its ATR, had told the court that Singh had not made any "specific derogatory and humiliating statement", warranting his prosecution on the complaint.