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11 Feb 2020 5:15pm

BREAKING NEWS: SUPREME COURT UPHELD THE VALIDITY OF SC / ST ACT

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NEW DELHI: On Monday, 10 February 2020, The Hon'ble Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the SC / ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018 which ruled out any anticipatory bail provision for a person accused of SC / ST atrocities. The SC has said that a court can only grant anticipatory bail in cases where a prima facie case is not resolved. “A preliminary inquiry is not essential before lodging an FIR under the act nor is the approval of senior police officials”, said a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra. Justice Ravindra Bhat said “a court can quash the FIR if a prima facie case is not is not made out under the SC/ST Act and the liberal use of anticipatory bail will defeat the intention of Parliament”.

By the bench of two judges, the 2018 verdict had ordered that a preliminary inquiry be conducted by a DSP rank officer to ascertain whether the allegations qualify to lodge a case under the SC / ST Act, and also to establish whether the allegations are baseless or motivated.  The decision on 20 March 2018 had led to massive nationwide protests. Furthermore, to counterbalance the decision, the Parliament had to pass the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018.

The decision of the top court came on a batch of PILs questioning the validity of the 2018 SC / ST Amendment Act, which was brought to nullify the effect of the 2018 judgment of the apex court which had diluted the provisions of the stringent law. The apex court had refused to stay the 2018 amendments to the SC / ST Act in January last year, which restored the clause that no anticipatory bail would be given to the accused in offense lodged under this statute.


Tagged: Supreme Court News Justice Arun Mishra SC / ST Amendment Act
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