The Supreme Court’s recent order banning automatic arrests and allowing anticipatory bail to the accused under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1988, was prompted by its observation that the law had been misused on multiple occasions to settle personal scores, harass and even blackmail people.
Now, public servants can be arrested under the Act only after receiving written sanction from the appointing authority. In the case of private individuals, the complainant has to seek permission from the senior superintendent of police. Besides, a preliminary inquiry has to be done before an arrest is made.
The motive behind the apex court’s directives is to prevent the indiscriminate exploitation of the provisions of this stringent law. There is no doubt that the Act has been on many occasions used as a tool to trouble people, both in the public and the private spheres. Frivolous complaints have been entertained, so much so that even informed criticism of a public figure belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Caste community becomes a reason for a case to be slapped against the critic.
The most recent example is that of cricketer Hardik Pandya, who questioned BR Ambedkar over the reservation policy. It is important that such remarks be contextualised and the intent understood before acting against persons making those remarks. At the same time, it is also true that the SC/ST Act is the only potent weapon in the legal armoury to act swiftly against those who seek to demean and insult people on the mere basis that the latter belong to that community. Since Independence, although various reformists and political leaders cutting across party lines have strongly disapproved of casteist slurs against the SC/ST people, such attacks have not stopped.
The 1988 Act was supposed to tackle the social menace effectively. But this is a politically sensitive issue, and it is not surprising, therefore, that political leaders have come out against the Supreme Court’s order and demanded that the Government challenge it. There have been voices with the Government and outside to do so, and it is possible that the Centre may heed those demands. But the issue of misuse of the law has to be dealt with, nevertheless. Incidentally, while casteist comments on the SC/ST community are tackled through the provisions of the Act in place, there is no special law to deal with similar remarks against the so-called high caste people. There have been several instances from leaders of the Bahujan Samaj Party in the past, for example, of brazenly insulting remarks against caste Hindus. These too need to be addressed effectively.
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