SC/ST Act ‘dilution’: Centre plans to seek review, says Sampla
AMRITSAR:UNION minister of state for social justice Vijay Sampla said on Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured a delegation of party leaders that the government “will soon prepare a plan” to seek review of the Supreme Court’s decision to ban immediate arrest under the Scheduled Castes/scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The Union law ministry has reportedly since advised the government to file a review plea.
At a press conference at the Circuit House here, Sampla — a prominent SC or Dalit leader who is president of the BJP unit in Punjab, the state with the highest proportion of SCS at 32% — said resentment is brewing in the Dalit community after the order. “Considering the sentiments of the community, a delegation of BJP leaders met the PM, who gave an assurance that the government will prepare its plan for seeking review of the order,” said Sampla, who is Lok Sabha MP from Hoshiarpur segment that falls in Punjab’s Dalit heartland, Doaba region.
Even the Vidhan Sabha of Punjab — ruled by the Congress at present — last week passed a resolution to urge the Modi government to file a petition for the apex court to review its order by which it banned automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under the Act to apparently curb its misuse.
Allies in the Centre’s ruling Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance have also protested the “dilution” of the Act.
Sampla, meanwhile, underlined that the NDA government had got made amendments to the SC/ST Act “that were applauded by the Dalits then”. He was apparently referring to amendments legislated in 2016 that expanded the ambit of the law.