BJP's Dalit MPs plan to meet party chief Amit Shah to press for a review petition against a Supreme Court order which dilutes the SC/ST Act
As BJP's Dalit MPs plan to meet party chief Amit Shah to press for a review petition against a Supreme Court order, which dilutes the SC/ST Act, an NDA ally claimed that schedule castes and tribes were "angry" over the verdict.
Urging the Centre to file a review petition at the earliest, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said his party Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will also file a review plea against the verdict on the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act which deals with cases of atrocities against scheduled castes and tribes.
The apex court had on Tuesday diluted its stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law in a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the SC/ST Act.
A group of BJP's Dalit MPs, who today met Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, said they would meet Amit Shah to press for a review petition against a Supreme Court order, which dilutes a law covering cases of atrocities against scheduled castes and tribes.
BJP's 'SC Morcha' chief Vinod Kumar Sonkar, who is also a Lok Sabha member, told PTI that they met Prasad and would meet Shah, and insisted that the government would ensure that no harm was done to the interests of the community.
Prasad told a press conference that the government was examining the apex court's judgement and would give a structured response to it in the coming days.
Some MPs said on the condition of anonymity that the only way out for the government was to file a review petition in the court as the issue had the potential to become a political hot potato for the saffron party, which had been wooing Dalits.
Several BJP leaders said it would work against the interests of Dalits with one of them saying that several laws were misused but it should not result in diluting them and that atrocities against Dalits remained a serious issue in vast parts of the country.
Bizay Sonkar Shastri, a Dalit leader from the BJP and its spokesperson, said it was a serious issue, more so as 90 per cent of criminal cases resulted in the acquittal of accused and the order would further weaken the law.
He recalled that the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati in 2002 had passed an order asking police invoke the SC/ST Act in serious cases only and claimed that he as the then chairperson of the SC and ST Commission had played a role in pressuring her to withdraw the decision.
"The Supreme Court's order more dangerous than that," he said.
Shastri said BJP leaders had met non-SC/ST lawmakers in Parliament as well and they were also sympathetic to their plea.
Several SC/ST MPs in NDA 'upset' over the verdict
Ram Vilas Paswan claimed that several SC/ST MPs in the ruling NDA were "upset" over the verdict.
"SCs and STs (schedule castes and schedule tribes) across the country are angry about this judgment and the government should file a review petition," he told reporters here.
The union minister said he has also spoken to Union Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and requested him that a review petition should be filed at the earliest.
Paswan was accompanied by his son Chirag Paswan, who is the chairperson of the LJP's parliamentary board.
The party will file the review petition in this case within a week and will also consider if there is need to file more than one review petition, Chirag told reporters.
On the SC/ST (POA) Act, the union minister said the Bill was piloted during his tenure as Union Social Justice minister, and it was passed in 1989 by the then Janata Dal government led by V P Singh.
Emphasising on the importance of stringent measures in the Bill, Paswan recalled the two massacres of Dalits in Bihar in 1996 and 1997.
He said most of the accused got acquittal from the high court.
What the SC verdict says
Expressing concern over misuse of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court on Tuesday introduced the provision of anticipatory bail and ruled against automatic arrest of the accused booked under the law.
The Supreme Court had ordered that there shall be no immediate arrest on any complaint filed under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Before arresting a public servant under the act, a preliminary probe by an officer not below the rank of deputy superintendent is a must, the court had said.
(With PTI inputs)
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