Cong worried over SC curbs on Atrocities Act

The Congress on Wednesday cried foul over the Supreme Court clamping several curbs on the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, linking it with the RSS-BJP attempts to abolish the reservation itself.

Demanding an immediate review petition in the court or amendment in the Act enacted in 1989 to protect the interests of the socially and economically weaker sections, the Congress leaders dubbed the court verdict as not diluting the atrocities law but putting a death knell into it.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, dismissed the Congress charge, saying it is in the habit of making false, baseless and irresponsible allegations. About the Supreme Court judgment, he said he would react after examining it.

At a joint press conference, party leaders Anand Sharma, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Selja, Ahmed Patel and Randeep Singh Surjewala questioned the government’s silence on the verdict at a time when the atrocities on the SCs and STs have gone up in the last two, three years.

They quoted the government’s national crime bureau report on atrocities on dalits recorded every 12 minutes. The 2016-17 data shows 40,881 cases of atrocities on dalits were registered and in fact the crimes against the Scheduled Castes have shot up by 5.5% and against Scheduled Tribals by 4.7% in the Modi regime while 75% of the accused of atrocities on Dalits go scot free without any punishment and 80% in case of the Adivasis.

Surjewala said the Apex Court ruling came as a result of the government’s default as the BJP government in Maharashtra being the direct respondent did not argue and the Attorney General did not appear despite the Court wanting his view on behalf of the Centre since it is a central law. Not even the solicitor general but an additional solicitor general was sent who made weak submissions to let the court crack the whip, he said.

When told that the Supreme Court had to intervene with stringent rules in view of gross misuse of the Act in harassment of the innocent people who did not belong to SC or ST, Surjewala, a lawyer himself besides being a Haryana MLA and former minister, shot back that every law is liable to be misused or abused. But a possible abuse can’t warrant abolition of the law, he said, asking should the laws on the murder or rape be abolished since there are cases of their abuse.

The Congress leaders said it was to the credit of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that the law was enacted to provide immediate relief to the SC/ST victims. They said the curbs put on implementation of the Act will terrorise the oppressed from approach the police as their complaints would not bring instant action but acted upon only after lengthy inquiry and permission of the appointing authority in case of a government servant.

They said the way the government did not defend the atrocities act once again brings out the anti-Dalit and anti-tribal face of the BJP and the RSS. They wondered whether the PM, the Law Minister and the SC/ST Ministers were sleeping when the Court gave a notice to dilute the law and wanted the Attorney General to explain the government’s stand.

The Congress leaders said the government has no calms in rushing the Solicitor General of India to even the trial courts in the cases against the Congress leaders, but its anti-Dalit leaning became crystal clear when it did not defend the rights of SCs and STs, calling it a conspiracy.

In a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act, the apex court on Tuesday diluted its stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law.