‘SC/ST Act Valid, Provision of no Anticipatory Bail to Continue,’ Rules Supreme Court

The Centre, in August 2018, had brought in an amendment to overrule the March 2018 judgement of the top court which struck down the 'no anticipatory bail' provision.

Author: India.com News Desk Edited by: Karan Manral

Updated: February 10, 2020, 11:31 AM IST

Share

Share Article

• Facebook
• WhatsApp
• X
• Email
• Telegram
• Linkedin

https://www.india.com/news/india/sc-st-act-valid-provision-of-no-anticipatory-bail-to-continue-rules-supreme-court-3937807/ Copy

Supreme Court

New Delhi: In a big blow to petitioners, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld the constitutional validity of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018.

The amendments restored the no anticipatory bail provision which was earlier struck down by the top court in March 2018.

Supreme Court upholds the constitutional validity of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018 that ruled out any provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities against SC/STs. pic.twitter.com/C2LMBwZiO8

— ANI (@ANI) February 10, 2020

A three-judge bench of the top court, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Vineet Saran and Ravindra Bhat pronounced judgement on the review petitions.

On March 20, 2018, taking note of the rampant misuse of the SC/ST Act, particularly against government servants and private individuals, the apex court had ruled that there would be no immediate arrest on any complaint filed under the law. It had also ruled that an investigation would have to be carried out before arresting an individual under the SC/ST Act.

The ruling, however, triggered outrage among the Dalit community who observed a Bharat Bandh days after the top court judgement, during which massive violence was witnessed. This prompted the Centre to file a review petition, which, too, was turned down by the court.

The protests, however, forced the Centre to bring in amendment overruling the judgement and restoring the original no anticipatory bail provision. Subsequently, The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018 was passed by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on August 6 and 9, 2018, respectively.

Earlier, the top court had said that the new amendments to the SC/ST Act passed by Parliament cannot be stayed and had sought the Centre’s response on pleas challenging the provisions.