A Tahsildar's order declaring a cemetery common is openly defied by a dominant caste. As the District Collector, how would you handle it?

In Perumbali village near Perundurai in Erode district, the Tahsildar declared the cemetery common to all communities. Even so, Backward Caste villagers blocked the burial of a 90-year-old Scheduled Caste man. The burial took place only under police protection, and afterwards two SC men fell at the villagers' feet [1]. As Collector, I would make the order stick through firm enforcement, victim protection and lasting social repair.

Immediate response: restore the right with dignity

• Go to the village with the SP. Make sure the burial and any later ones go ahead under police and Revenue protection [1].
• Use prohibitory orders (Section 163, BNSS) if needed to prevent violence.
• Mark the cemetery boundary and put up a public notice of the order.

Legal enforcement: punish defiance, not just manage it

• Register an FIR under the SC/ST (PoA) Act, as amended in 2015. It covers both blocking access to burial grounds and the threatened economic boycott, since SC families were told never to seek work again [1].
• Record the feet-falling as forced humiliation, not as a "compromise".
• Ask for a speedy trial and witness protection. Only 217 Exclusive Special Courts exist, in 15 States/UTs [3], and roughly two in three PoA trials end without conviction (33.9% conviction rate in 2024) [2].

Victim relief: remove the leverage behind coercion

• Pay statutory relief quickly from centrally assisted PoA funds [3].
• Give priority MGNREGA work so that SC labourers' income no longer depends on the dominant caste. A boycott threat then loses its force.
• Publicise the SAMBAL helpline so any reprisal is reported [3].

Prevention: from one-day protection to regular monitoring

• Get the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee to list Perumbali as a sensitive village and check that SC families actually use the cemetery, not just that the order exists.
• Form a peace committee of panchayat members, elders and youth from both communities. It should work alongside prosecution, not replace it.
• Encourage shared spaces (Samathuvapuram-style common facilities) and run awareness drives in schools.

Firm enforcement and empathetic dialogue together turn a paper order into a right people can actually use. In this way the Collector becomes the guardian of constitutional morality over social prejudice. That upholds Article 17's abolition of untouchability "in any form", the dignity promised in the Preamble, and SDG 10 and SDG 16.