Karnataka HC quashes FIR against Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, IISc officials in ‘caste abuse’ case

The petitioners, including IISc Director Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Registrar Captain Sridhar Warrier (Retd) and several faculty members, were named in a private complaint lodged by Dr D Sanna Durgappa, a former assistant professor at the IISc who belongs to a Scheduled Caste community.

Dr Durgappa alleged that the petitioners harassed him due to his caste, falsely accused him of sexual harassment, and terminated his employment without a fair inquiry. He further claimed that two advocates representing IISc threatened him, asking him to resign, and attempted to cancel his advocate’s licence.

The court found that the dispute originated from Dr Durgappa’s termination in 2015, following allegations of sexual harassment which he claimed were false and motivated by caste-based discrimination.

The termination was challenged before the high court in 2015, where a settlement was reached, converting his termination into a resignation. As part of the settlement, Dr Durgappa received terminal benefits and agreed to withdraw all related complaints filed with authorities like the National Commission for SC/ST.

Despite the settlement, Dr Durgappa filed two private complaints in 2016 and 2017 under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, alleging caste-based harassment by IISc officials, both of which were quashed by the high court in 2016 and 2017 for attempting to give a criminal colour to a civil dispute.

In 2025, he filed a third complaint reiterating similar allegations and adding claims against two IISc advocates for threatening him and attempting to cancel his advocate’s license. This led to another FIR being filed against Gopalakrishnan, Rangarajan and other IISc officials, which the high court has now quashed.

Justice Chandangoudar held that the accusations in the latest complaint did not constitute offences under the SC/ST Act and were a “vexatious attempt to harass the petitioners”. “The dispute between the parties is essentially civil in nature, albeit presented with a criminal colour,” the judge noted, emphasising that the repeated complaints were an abuse of the legal process.

The high court quashed the FIR and granted the petitioners liberty to seek permission from the Advocate General to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Dr Durgappa for filing frivolous complaints. Any pending interim applications were dismissed as the main petition was resolved.