Supreme Court today ordered back its own judgment in the case regarding the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, Act. The verdict of March 20, 2018, pertained to the dilution of the act that called for the stopping of the automatic arrest of the alleged individual.
In 2018 judgment, the court said that the public servants cannot be arrested immediately after a complaint is filed against them. The nation witnessed a protest over the issue. Parliament even came up with an amendment bill in August to reverse the court’s verdict. The Centre had called the 2018 judgment against the “spirit of constitution“.
A three-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, MR Shah, and BR Gavai hearing the petitions set aside the previous orders given by the two-judge bench. Court said adding that the abuse of the SC/ST Act cannot be a ground to dilute the provisions of the Act. It said despite the protection provided to these communities under Article 15, Scheduled tribes and Scheduled caste sections are still being discriminated against in the country.
The court said that the struggle for equality of SC/ST communities was still not over.