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Context
Recent judgment of SC to protect public servants and private citizens from arbitrary arrests under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989
Stats on crime against dalits
India has over 180 million Dalits
- A crime is committed against a Dalit every 15 minutes
- Six Dalit women are raped every day
- Over the last 10 years (2007-2017), there has been a 66% growth in crime against Dalits
Issues
- Provision of anticipatory bail: As per the author the provision of the exclusion of anticipatory had been upheld by a five-judge bench of the apex court in Kartar Singh
- Decline in conviction rate: The decline in the conviction rate for crimes against Dalits has created an impression that this may be driven by false filing of cases. But data from NCRB do not seem to support this contention. In fact, the share of false cases under the SC/ST Act has declined over time (2009-2015). Low conviction rates show poor investigation and incompetence of prosecution. Witnesses routinely turn hostile in such cases
- Deviation from a set judicial opinion: The Supreme Court had clearly said that anticipatory bail provision for the first time was introduced in 1973 and it is merely a limited statutory right and not part of right to life and personal liberty under Article 21
Conclusion
Author concludes by stating that the judgment will have a chilling effect on the already underreported crimes against Dalits. The government must go for a review
