‘SC ruling will lead to more atrocities on SC, STs’

The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act Protection Committee here on Monday expressed serious concern over the ‘dilution’ of the stringent provisions of the Act and urged the Centre to file a review petition to nullify the changes sought to be made by the Supreme Court.

Fearing increase in atrocities on Dalits across the country, the committee convenor Kankanala Anjaneyulu, chairing a roundtable here, also wanted the Centre to promulgate an Ordinance to retain the stringent provision of Section 18 of the Act, which had been modified on the pretext of misuse.

The poor conviction rate in SC/ST atrocity cases was as a result of lapses on the part of the law enforcing agencies in ensuring justice to the victims of atrocities, the committee co-convenor B.Venkat opined, adding that delay in arrest of accused would be used to ‘intimidate the victims and force them to withdraw cases by upper caste people’.

Approval for arrest

Without the provision for immediate arrest in SC/ST POA cases, atrocities on SCs and STs would go up, felt Dalit Hakkula Porata Sangham district president Ch.Ravishankar.

In many cases government servants and officials were named accused and getting the ‘approval’ by an ‘appointing authority’ before arrest would be practically impossible, argued Bahujan Samaj Party State secretary Ongole Chittibabu.

The Act was made in 1989 and implemented from March 1995.

But it failed to act as a deterrent to stop crime against the Dalits and tribals, they felt.