A Sikh juror who was allegedly refused entry to court because he was carrying his religious knife has been dismissed from duty after feeling “embarrassed and discriminated against” at the door.
“I felt like I had done something wrong, like I was a criminal. The security guard told me, “It’s too long, you can’t go home with it.” If you take it out, you can take it back with you when you leave. “They left me standing there like I did something wrong,” lamented ex- Juror Jatinder Singh, according to The Telegraph on Sunday.
Last Monday, the man was summoned to jury duty at Birmingham Crown Court, UK, when a security guard allegedly blocked him from entry after the dinner break with his kirpan, a religious knife carried as a sign of faith.
However, according to the BBC, the man entered in the morning to carry out his duties as a member of the jury without the slightest problem.
But even if the blade of his knife did not exceed 10 centimeters and the limit for the blade of a Sikh kirpan admitted to a British court was 12.7 cm, the guard would not have wanted to give in, according to The Telegraph.
“I was embarrassed, I felt discriminated against, I didn’t expect something like this to happen to me,” he continued, according to the BBC.
Jatinder Singh has reportedly not set foot in court since Monday following his dismissal from service, Britain’s Ministry of Justice said, while Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service apologized for the distress caused and indicated that he, along with his agents, would Security measures will be examined to prevent this from happening again.
“Even though we have been here for so long, we still have problems with the kirpan, even though it shouldn’t be a problem anymore, be it with the dastar (head covering) or any other article of faith,” he said. – he hammered, as a former secretary of the British Sikh Council.