Making caste slur on SC/ST over phone an offence, says SC

Making caste slur on SC/ST over phone an offence, says SC

Context

• The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that using casteist remarks over phone in a public place against the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe category will amounts to criminal offence, warranting a jail of a maximum five years.

What was the case?

• The SC refused to stay criminal proceedings and annul an FIR against a person, who allegedly used derogatory casteist remarks over phone to a woman from the the SC/ST category.
• The bench declined to interfere with the August 17 order of the Allahabad High Court, which rejected the plea of a Uttar Pradesh resident, seeking quashing of the FIR against him by the woman.
• The SC dismissed his plea saying he has to prove during the trial that he had not talked to the woman over phone in a public place.
• Advocate Vivek Vishnoi, appearing for the accused, claimed that at the time of the said conversation, both the woman and his client were in different cities and it could not be stated that it was in public view, thus his client cannot be booked under section 3(1)(s) of SC/ST Act.
• “Both persons were in different cities and the conversation took place over the phone, which can’t be said to be in a public view. This was a private conversation. The apex court had already settled what ‘public view’ means in its earlier verdict of 2008,” Advocate Vishnoi said.
• The bench, however, refused to agree with the argument and said it was only in the trial that the accused could prove if he was talking on phone in public view or not.