In a first, Gujarat High Court grants anticipatory bail to 15 accused of Darbar family in atrocity case

Ahmedabad:

In the first instance of anticipatory bail in a case under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 in the state after a recent apex court judgement, the Gujarat High Court has allowed such bail to 15 accused of Darbar community including 6 women in a case of North Gujarat.

The single bench court of Justice J B Pardiwala granted anticipatory bail to the accused of the case which was pertaining to an incident of alleged attack on the members of Dalit community by that of Darbar community in Vandod village under Jadar police station of Sabarkantha district, The two groups allegedly had an altercation over alleged urination in an open and public space by a dalit man and opposition to it by the other side.

The court accepted the plea of the defence counsel Rajesh Shah who had also brought to notice the recent Apex Court judgement while seeking bail for the accused.

The court in its verbal order dated March 21 (the written copy of which was issued today), has made a detailed mention of the apex court judgement of March 20 of S K Mahajan vs The State of Maharashtra. He allowed the anticipatory bail on a personal bond of Rs 10000/- and a surety of similar amount to each of the accused. He, however observed that the trial court should not be influenced by his order.

Shah said that the incident was of January 19 when after an altercation over the issue of opposition by the Darbar community to the urination of a Dalit community member in an open space. The complaint under sections 3 (1) (r) (s), 3 (2)(v-a) of the SC/ST Act and 143,147,148,149, 323,504 and 506 (2) of the IPC was filed on March 23 and the lower court rejected the anticipatory bail to the accused on February 7. The Dalits were in fact living on the land provided by the ancestors of the Dabrbar family against whom the suit has been filed.

Shah later said that it was overall second such anticipatory bail instance in Gujarat under the SC/ST Atrocity Act but the first one after the March 20 apex court order. Earlier the court of Justice A J Desai had also granted such bail over two years back.

Notably, on March 20, expressing concern over rampant misuse of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court introduced the provision of anticipatory bail while also directing that there would be no automatic arrest on any complaint filed under the law and a preliminary inquiry must be conducted by police within seven days before taking any action. A division bench of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit introduced the provision of anticipatory bail despite Section 18 of the act denying pre-arrest bail. Such a protective provision was required to safeguard the interest and dignity of innocents and prevent the misuse of the act as an instrument to blackmail or wreak personal vengeance, the bench said.

DeshGujarat