Court to hear pleas on SC/ST Act from Mar 26

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear from March 26 review pleas challenging its 2018 judgment that tweaked provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and petitions challenging the government’s rollback of these changes through an amendment.

In March last year, the court banned automatic arrests and registration of cases under the law and said there was no absolute bar against the grant of anticipatory bail in cases of atrocities against SC and ST communities.

The verdict was criticised by experts and political parties for making the socially disadvantaged sections vulnerable and led to protests in some parts of the country.

The government then rolled back these provisions through an amendment to the law. The changes restored the power of police to carry out immediate arrests in cases of atrocities and denial of anticipatory bail.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Indu Malhotra said it would hold the hearings for three consecutive days from March 26 and pass its verdict thereafter.

The date was fixed after the bench ascertained the views of attorney general K K Venugopal, who appeared for the Centre and other senior lawyers like Indira Jaising appearing for the petitioners.

The court earlier agreed to hear the Centre’s review against its order, but it declined to stay the operation of the judgement, prompting the government to bring in the amendment.

Last April, nine people were killed in violence during a bandh called against the dilution of the SC/ST Act in states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Bihar. Some SC and ST members of Parliament from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party even wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging the Centre to intervene.

The court’s view was that the provisions of the law are often misused.