New Delhi, November 06, 2020: The Supreme Court of India in a judgment on Thursday held that all insults and intimidations to persons from the Dalit or tribal communities cannot be constituted as an offence under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Supreme Court three-judge bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao observed and held that the insult must be specifically intended to humiliate the victim for his caste. “All insults or intimidations to a person will not be an offence under the Act unless such insult or intimidation is on account of victim belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.”

According to a report in The Hindu, the court said that an offence is made out under the statute only if the insults or intimidations were made on account of the victim belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe. That the “offence under the Act is not established merely on the fact that the informant is a member of Scheduled Caste unless there is an intention to humiliate a member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe for the reason that the victim belongs to such caste, the court added.

The act is intended to “punish the acts of the upper caste” against the vulnerable sections for the reason that they belong to a particular community, the court said.

The court was hearing an appeal filed by a man who had been booked under the Act for allegedly abusing a Dalit woman in her house. The court found that allegations against him did not fulfil the basic criteria under the Act that such humiliation should have happened in public view.

The bench held that to constitute an offence under the Act, the words spoken must be “in any place within public view”, and not within the four walls of a house. Since the incident occurred in the absence of members of the public, allegations against the man under the Act did not hold and he could only be tried under ordinary criminal law, the court said.

News Courtesy:PIB | Hindu| DC | LE | LI | LO | IE | LL | PTI |ht | ET | UNI | DNA | FP | Jurist |IndToday|

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