SC arrest curbs to prevent misuse of the Atrocities Act

The Supreme Court on Tuesday barred the automatic registration of FIR and arrest on a complaint under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, citing its rampant misuse in the last three decades.

A Bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and Uday U Lalit has listed safeguards, making it mandatory for the police to conduct a preliminary inquiry, not exceeding a week, to decide whether an FIR should be registered.

Even if an FIR is registered, the accused will not be arrested automatically, the court said, stressing that the arrest is not at all mandatory in cases under the SC/ST Act as "there is need to safeguard innocent citizens against false implication and unnecessary arrest."

It said the Act was enacted with the objective that the underprivileged need protection against any atrocities to give effect to the Constitutional ideals, but "the Act cannot be converted into a charter for exploitation or oppression by any unscrupulous person or by police for extraneous reasons against other citizens."

The Bench said the court has to step in to ensure the constitutional guarantee against the harassment of an innocent citizen, irrespective of caste or religion.

"Liberty of one citizen cannot be placed at the whim of another. Law has to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Thus considered, exclusion has to be applied to genuine cases and not to false ones. This will help in achieving the object of the law," the court said.

Innocent citizens are termed as accused, which is not intended by the legislature, it said, stressing that the legislature never intended to use the Atrocities Act as an instrument to blackmail or to wreak personal vengeance.

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