SC reserves order on petitions challenging amendments to SC/ST Act

New Delhi, May 01: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on petitions challenging the amendments to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The Supreme Court's March 20, 2018, judgement allowed anticipatory bail to those booked for committing atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people. The original 1989 Act barred anticipatory bail.

Later in 2018, Parliament passed a bill to overturn a Supreme Court order. The Bill rules out any provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities against SC/STs, notwithstanding any court order.

Supreme Court's two-judge bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra and also comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit today reserved order on a number of review petitions against Supreme Court's decision diluting provisions of the SC/ST Act, reported ANI.

The top court had earlier said that the new amendments to the SC/ST law passed by Parliament cannot be stayed and had sought the Centre's response on pleas challenging the provisions.

The Supreme Court had in February this year said that it will begin hearing the batch of review petitions and writ petitions in relation to the amended Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act [SC/ST Amendment Act] in March. The main review petition along with all the connected matters was listed for hearing before the Bench of Justices UU Lalit and Indu Malhotra.

On March 20, 2018, the apex court had taken note of the rampant misuse of the stringent SC/ST Act against government servants and private individuals and said there would be no immediate arrest on any complaint filed under the law.