SC Notice to Centre on Plea Challenging Amendments to SC/ST Act

Supreme Court. Image used for representational purposes. 

(Image altered by the Quint)

The Supreme Court on Friday, 7 September, issued a notice to the Centre on three pleas challenging the recent amendment to the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, restoring the provision mandating immediate arrest in the event of a complaint.

A bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan sought the Centre's response to the pleas but refused to stay the amended law.

"We can't stay without hearing the other side," the bench told the petitioners.

The matter has been posted for the next hearing after six weeks.

THE PETITION

The petitioners – lawyers Prathvi Raj Chauhan, Priya Sharma and an NGO – have challenged the amendment made in the just concluded monsoon session of Parliament by which the lawmakers nullified an apex court verdict removing the provision for immediate arrest.

The pleas said the fresh amendments were a violation of the fundamental rights to equality, life and liberty.

Comparing the recent amendment with the one brought by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government to overturn the top court verdict in Shah Bano case, the petitioner lawyers have described the provision to arrest as "arbitrary" as this would be misused against innocent people.

In the Shah Bano case, the top court had awarded maintenance to the divorced Muslim woman, but the then government brought an amendment to overturn the judgment holding that it was an infringement of the Muslim Personal Law.

The petitioners have contended that the government brought the amendment under pressure from alliance partners and for political mileage and the fear of antagonizing a huge vote-bank ahead of the next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

It says the government plea seeking the recall of the apex court order is still pending with the top court.

THE ACT AND THE AMENDMENT

The Lok Sabha on 6 August passed the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018, which sought to overturn a Supreme Court order that struck down the provision for immediate arrest.

The bill provides that an Investigating Officer will not require the approval of any authority for the arrest of the accused booked under the SC/ST Act. Further, it provides that a preliminary inquiry will not be required for the registration of an FIR against those accused under the Act.

On 20 March, the Supreme Court ruled that to arrest persons accused of committing an offence under the said Act, approval of the concerned Senior Superintendent of Police will be required.

THE PROTESTS

Many places in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, 6 September, were affected by the Bharat Bandh called to protest against the changes made in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The protest saw representation from upper caste organisations.

Inversely, Dalit groups had protested in March, post the dilution of the Act by the Supreme Court. In response, the Union government brought an amendment in the monsoon session of Parliament to override the order.

(Inputs from IANS)