The High Court of Karnataka has summoned the service records and details of all the criminal cases filed by Seema H., an Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF), after taking note of the allegation that she had changed the name and religion of her father and claimed that she belonged to Hindu-Adi Karnataka community, a Scheduled Caste (SC).
She has also filed several cases against many, including some by invoking the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The court passed the order on a petition filed by Pradeepkumar, a city-based advocate, who had questioned the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against him by Vidhana Soudha police on the complaint by Ms. Seema.
“Whether the complainant [Ms. Seema] has secured employment contending that she is the one belonging to Scheduled Caste or not, is a matter which requires to be noticed and considered by the State,” Justice M. Nagaprasanna observed in the order while asking the authorities to submit her service records.
The complaint
She had lodged a complaint of forgery against the petitioner-advocate, her father, and another person on October 10, 2024, in connection with a letter written in her name to the head of the Forest Department by allegedly forging her signature, in which complaint of harassment was made against her immediate superior officer.
She had also alleged in the complaint that her father, who is a retired employee of the Forest Department, had deserted his wife and children, and he is now trying to bring bad name to her. The petitioner-advocate and others are attempting to keep a track on her by securing records related to her under RTI Act, she had claimed.
However, it has been alleged in the petition that Ms. Seema, 38 has targeted the petitioner as he is representing one Vinod V. in a matrimonial case filed by her before a civil court in October, 2017, alleging that her husband [Vinod] has failed to fulfil her conjugal rights. The petitioner-advocate had also filed applications under RTI Act to secure her credentials like names of her parents, religion, caste, school data, service records, etc., on behalf of Mr. Vinod, who has denied having married her.
Senior Advocate D.R. Ravishankar, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that petitioner-advocate had secured Ms. Seema’s records, including SSLC marks card under RTI Act, which discloses her father’s name as H.K.M. Harshad and mother’s name as Pyarijan and they belong to Muslim religion. Ms. Seema filed a civil suit in 2014 in which she got an ex-parte decree with a declaration that the name of her father is not ‘H.K.M. Harshad’ but it is ‘H.K. Mariswamy’ and he belong to Scheduled Caste.
In this suit, there were four defendants, all are officers of the State government, and they remain ex-parte.
Matrimonial case
Ms. Seema and Mr. Vinod, who was her senior during post-graduation, were friends, and she had claimed that she married him at a park, known as Jinkevana in Chikkamagaluru, as per Hindu rituals in August, 2017, when she was serving in Chikkamagaluru.
However, Mr. Vinod’s father lodged a complaint on August 11, 2017, that his son, who went to meet Ms. Seema, had not returned home. On his return, Mr. Vinod himself lodged a complaint on August 14, 2017, against her alleging that she took him to Chikkamagaluru on the pretext of asking him to drive her new car from showroom to the city’s outskirts but later allegedly kidnapped him.
Published – November 09, 2024 08:36 pm IST