The Orissa High Court, in a recent ruling, said that abusing someone with the name of their caste or suddenly uttering their caste during an incident would not amount to an offence under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 (SC/ST Act), unless there is an intention is to insult or humiliate the victim.
Justice RK Pattanaik said:
“If someone is abused with the name of his caste or the caste is uttered suddenly in course of events and during the incident, in the humble view of the Court, by itself would not be sufficient to hold that any offence under the SC and ST (PoA) Act is made out unless the intention is to insult or humiliate the victim for the reason that he belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe is prima facie established.
The Court also took note of the fact that the person who was said to have been verbally abused on the basis of their caste had not lodged the compalint.
The Case: In 2017, the accused and the complainant had gotten involved in an altercation, when the latter was abused in "filthy language, assaulted and terrorised by the accused."
Others, including the victim (who belonged to a scheduled caste) tried to intervene and rescue the complainant. At this point, the accused reportedly criminally intimidated the victim and cast aspersions on their caste.
More details? The court, said that it would be "stretching things too far" and "unjustified" to claim that there was an intention to insult the victim present there on the basis of his caste.
Considering these factors, the High Court set aside the charges levelled under Section 3 of the SC/ST Act against the accused. The court, however, refused to quash other charges against them including causing hurt and criminal intimidation.
(With inputs from Bar and Bench)
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