Supreme Court refuses to stay its earlier order on SC/ST Act

New Delhi: The Supreme Court while hearing the Centre’s plea seeking to review the March 20 verdict putting safeguards on arrest under the the stringent SC/ST Act today asked all parties to submit detailed replies within two days and said the matter will be heard after ten days. The Supreme Court refused to stay its earlier order.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had agreed to constitute the original bench of Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit at 2 pm to hear the review plea after Attorney General K K Venugopal referred to an emergency situation of large scale violence and loss of lives and property during yesterday’s Bharat Bandh.

The union government, in its review petition, said the March 20 verdict has “wide ramification and implication resulting in dilution of the stringent provisions of law enacted under the 1989 enactment. It adversely affects a substantial portion of the population of India being the members of SC/ST. It is also contrary to the legislative policy of Parliament as reflected in the Prevention Of Atrocities Act 1989”.

The plea filed by the All India Federation of SC/ST Organisations, a conglomerate of nearly 150 employees’ groups, said after the March 20 verdict large-scale nationwide violence had taken place in which several people had lost their lives.

The Supreme court had on March 20 said that “in view of the acknowledged abuse of law of arrest in cases under the Atrocities Act, arrest of a public servant can only be after approval of the appointing authority and of a non-public servant after approval by the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) which may be granted in appropriate cases if considered necessary for reasons recorded.”

The Supreme court had also directed that the reasons recorded by the competent authority and the SSP must be scrutinised by the magistrate for permitting further detention of an accused.

To avoid false implication of an innocent, the top court directed that a preliminary enquiry may be conducted by a DSP rank officer to find whether the allegations make out a case under the Atrocities Act and are not frivolous or motivated.