Bidar, 4 April

The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking a review of the Karnataka High Court’s order, which had stated that the Veerashaiva Lingayat Jangama community is not the same as Beda Jangama or Budga Jangama.

The petitioner, Ravindraswami, a resident of Bidar, had filed a review petition in the SC against the high court ruling. The High Court had stated that Veerashaiva Lingayat Jangamas are not Beda Jangama or Budga Jangama.

Ravindraswami, who belonged to the Veerashaiva Lingayat community, had obtained a scheduled caste (SC) certificate under Beda Jangama.

Karnataka Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) State Organising Convenor Maruti Bauddhe welcomed the SC verdict. He said that Ravindraswami had fraudulently obtained an SC certificate.

The issuance of the caste certificate had been challenged before the Kalaburagi bench of the High Court, which subsequently cancelled Swami’s caste certificate. Challenging this, Ravindraswami had approached the SC in 2025, which upheld the high court’s order.

Karnataka Dalit organisations’ leaders, including Maruti Bauddhe, RPI (Ambedkar) state coordinator Mahesh Gornalkar and DSS leaders Arun Patel, Babu Tiger, Rajkumar Waghmare and Ashok Gaikwad, also welcomed the verdict.

They demanded stringent punishment against officials who issue false certificates as well as those who obtained them.

Welcoming the verdict, Rajkumar Mulabharati, state general secretary of the Karnataka SC/ST Anti-Fake Caste Certificate Struggle Committee said that if Ravindraswami had been genuinely eligible for the ST status, his efforts would have had merit. Everyone in the state should abide by the order.