Protests triggered by charge of law misuse
numbers did not allow Dalits to do anything that would antagonise the high castes. Evidence shows that efforts by Dalits have been crushed by the higher castes through social and economic boycott .So how can Dalits misuse the act?
Even under the current provisions of the act, the average number of cases every year between 2013 and 2016 came to around 40,000. Between 2010 and 2016, of the cases in which trial was completed, a big majority ended in acquittals. If conviction rates are taken as a proportion of the total cases that came up for trial in each year, the figures were even more dismal. For instance, in 2016, only 1.4% of all crimes against scheduled castes that came up for trial ended in convictions; for scheduled tribes , the percentage was 0.8%.
Why is the conviction rate so low? The standing committee of the ministry of social justice and empowerment, which toured the country during the amendment of the act in 2015 attributed the low conviction rate to “wilful negligence’ by officials. A close scrutiny of cases revealed that the main reason for the low conviction rate was the bias of the officials involved in the investigation who left loopholes to help the people from their social backgrounds. This eventually led to the high acquittal rate.the loopholes included delays in the filing of the Fir,not conducting inquiries on the spot ,the appointment of officers below the required ranks, avoiding registration of the cases under proper provisions of the Act , among others.it is because of these reasons that the original 1989 act was made more stringent in 2015.
Therefore what the decision of the Supreme Court may do is give more time and freedom to make cases weak. The government should contest the decision in the Supreme Court.