Fault lines in a ‘landmark’ judgment

Fault lines in a ‘landmark’ judgment

Article:

1. Shyam Babu, senior fellow, centre for policy research, highlighted the critical aspect of the recently delivered verdict on the SC/STs Atrocities Act by the Supreme Court Justice.

Important facts:

2. The SC Justice A.K. Goel defended his judgment on SCs/STs Atrocities Act delivered by him on March 20, 2018.
3. Justice Goel gave the verdict on framing guidelines on how to deal with a person accused under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
4. Justice verdict symbolizes the collapse of the constitutional scheme to protect the weaker sections of the society.
5. The judgment is concerned with a limited aspect of the Act- protecting innocent officers and employees in government and private sectors from misuse of the Act.
6. The Judgment has ended up conveying a message that the Atrocities Act is “a charter for exploitation or oppression, “and “an instrument of blackmail or to wreak personal vengeance”.
7. The court has mistaken a large number of acquittals in atrocities cases to be false cases. At the same time there is no data on the scale and extent to which the Act has been misused by the SC/ST employees.
8. The demand for an “inbuilt provisions” to protect those falsely accused under the act was first raised by a parliamentary committee in Dec 2014.
9. The court’s single-minded mission to end “terror in society” rendered it oblivious to the constitutional procedure to be followed in making policies that affect the SC/STs.
10. Article 338 stipulates: The Union and every State government shall consult the Commission (National Commission for Scheduled Castes) on all major policy matters affecting Scheduled Castes.
11. Article 338A, which created the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, provides the same procedure in case of STs.
12. Two grounds can be advance for not following Article 338:
13. The court did was tweaking to issue guidelines and is not “major” policy matter.
14. More substantive justification could be that since no government has cared to follow his procedure since 1950’s.
15. The 123^rd Amendment seeks to create the new National Commission for Backward Classes under a new Article 338B.
16. The Author gave the following suggestions:
17. Balancing the rights of innocent persons facing false accusations and the need to accord legitimacy to the Atrocities Act requires compassion, equanimity, and reverence for the Constitution.