New Delhi: The Supreme Court allowed the review petition filed by the Centre against the apex court’s March 2018 judgment diluting various stringent provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The Centre had filed a review petition after the SC judgment led to violent nation-wide protests by various SC/ST organisations on April 2, 2018.
Pronouncing its order in March 2018, the SC had said that there had been instances of serious misuse of the Act by ‘vested interests.’ Observing that on several occasions the Act was used to harass innocent citizens or prevent government officials from performing their duties, the top court had ruled that there would be no immediate arrest on any complaint filed under the law.
It also laid down safeguards like allowing anticipatory bail and probing if a case was made out under the Act, before registration of the FIR.
The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, better known as the SC/ST Act, is an Act of the Parliament enacted to prevent atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.