IS THE SC/ST AMENDMENT ACT CONSTITUTIONALLY VALID?

The Supreme Court on 10th February 2020, held in its judgment that the amendments made to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act of 2018 will have constitutional validity.

The three-Judge Bench headed by justice Arun Mishra and also consisting of Justices Vineet Saran, and Ravindra Bhatt had reserved its verdict in the matter given by them on October 3, 2019, Justice Arun Mishra also hinted that the amendment made through the official gazette was likely to be upheld and that no provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) amendment act will be diluted.

He while pronouncing the Judgment mentioned that the law will stand as it stood prior to the judgment passed in March 2018. He had mentioned that the order in the case would be "short one".

In August 2018, through an official Gazette, the government inserted a new section of the SC/ST act. The new section 18A was added to the act. This section stated that ‘no preliminary inquiry shall be required for registration of a First Information Report against any person’ and that ‘the investigating officer shall not require approval for the arrest, if necessary, of any person, against whom an accusation of having committed an offense under this Act has been made and no procedure other than that provided under this Act or the Code shall apply’.

The new section added would have done away with the court-imposed requirements of conducting a preliminary inquiry for filing of a First Information Report and also for the requirement of approval to be taken by the investigating officer before making an arrest.

The petitions were filed by Advocates Prithviraj Chauhan, Priya Sharma and few others who contended that the amendment made to the ‘Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989’ in2018 was liable to be struck down as the new provision added is violative of Articles 14, 19and 21 of the Indian Constitution and it also violates the basic structure of the constitution.

The three main points of the petitions that were filed had the contentions that pertained to the provision of preliminary inquiry for complaints under the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) Act, the approval of a request by the investigating officer to make a request and to the provision of anticipatory bail.

CONCLUSION

By this judgment, the three-judge bench has been clear about the decision to uphold that the amendments made to the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) amendment act, 2018 is constitutionally valid and does not infringe any of the fundamental rights as contended in the petition. 

Author:

eStartIndia Team