The California Civil Rights Department has voluntarily dismissed its case alleging caste discrimination against two Cisco engineers, while still keeping alive its litigation against the Silicon Valley tech giant.
The two Cisco supervisors, Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella, were accused in the department’s lawsuit of discriminating and harassing an employee on the basis of caste – a division of people based on birth or descent. That case was dismissed by an order of the Santa Clara Superior County Court last week. The employee belonged to the Dalit community, a group that is at the bottom rung of the caste system which took root and evolved in India and elsewhere in the subcontinent.
