The case against two supervisors at Cisco for caste discrimination has been voluntarily dismissed by the California Civil Rights Department, reports Fortune.
The dismissal follows a ruling by the California County Superior Court last week in favor of the defendants, Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella.
The issue of caste discrimination has been at the forefront with the Seattle City Council voting to ban it, and a bill now before the California State Senate to do the same thing.
Opponents argue it unfairly targets the Indian American community and presumes guilt.
The Civil Rights Division of California, however, says while it dropped its case against the two individuals, it continues to investigate the company itself.
“We will continue to vigorously litigate the matter on behalf of the people of California,” it said, according to the American Bazaar, stating that it remains committed to “securing relief and ensuring company-wide, corrective action.”
Cisco declined to comment.
The state pursued its case after a Dalit engineer claimed he received less pay and fewer opportunities for promotion and that his supervisors retaliated against him for complaining. The engineer said he worked on a team of Indians from a higher caste.
Dalits are at the bottom of the ladder under the caste system of India and other South Asian countries. Fortune reports that Hindus for Human Rights and Hindus for Caste Equity support a ban on caste discrimination but that Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America oppose the bill.
“This is not a loss, but progress,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan of Equality Labs. “The Dalit community owes (the engineer) and the Civil Rights Department gratitude for having the courage to bring such a historic case forward.”
However, Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, said enough is enough.
“Two Indian Americans endured a nearly three year nightmare of unending investigations, a brutal online witch hunt and a presumption of guilt in the media,” she said.
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