Rajbhar flays passage of SC, ST Bill

| | Lucknow | in Lucknow

Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, the sulking ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, criticised the passage of The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill. 

The SC, ST Bill was passed by Rajya Sabha by voice vote on August 9 after its passage in the Lok Sabha on August 6. 

The Parliament passed the Bill to overturn a Supreme Court order regarding certain safeguards against arrest under SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. 

The Bill rules out any provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of committing atrocities against SCs/STs, notwithstanding any court order.

Defending the dilution of the stringent SC, ST Act by the Supreme Court, Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is also a Cabinet minister in the UP government, said that the misuse of the Act was rampant in Uttar Pradesh and most persons arrested under it were framed for various reasons.

On March 19, the Supreme Court had ordered a ban on automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. A bench of the apex court had ruled that no arrests could be made under the Act without prior permission. It also held that a court could grant a pre-arrest bail (anticipatory bail) if it, prima facie, found the complaint as an abuse of law, false, motivated and intended to blackmail or harass a person.  The apex court said that this was necessary to prevent rampant misuse of the tough provisions of the law.