Plea rejected by Bombay HC.
Days after SC verdict on the SC/ST act, Bombay HC has ruled that it can't be presumed that the law is misused in every case, reports TOI.
In a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the SC/ST Act, the Supreme Court on March 20 diluted its stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law. The top court said that on "several occasions", innocent citizens were being termed as accused and public servants deterred from performing their duties, which was never the intention of the legislature while enacting the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
A bench of Justices Adarsh Goel and U U Lalit said unless the exclusion of anticipatory bail is limited to "genuine cases and inapplicable to cases where there is no prima facie case was made out, there will be no protection available to innocent citizens".
However, Bombay HC refused to give relief to a man who cited the SC judgment on Thursday. A division bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Prakash Naik said that denial of anticipatory bill is 'legal and valid' under SC/ST act. ‘
The case is of road rage. The fight happened between one Akash Kadave and the complainant, who belongs to the SC/ST community. The person's bike hit Kadave which lead to complainant being allegedly assaulted and abused. Both individuals filed case against each other. However, Kadave was slapped with charges under Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act which negates chances of granting anticipatory bail. Kadave's lawyer cited the SC verdict to urge for relief. However Bombay HC declined and laid out a detailed explanation. “We see no merit in the appeal nor in the argument and the attempt made before us by relying on the judgment of the Supreme Court. That judgment delivered is essentially determining the controversy as to whether the whole enactment can be used to settle scores against the superiors in public service or working privately,” said the bench.
It further said this is " not a case where the ingredients of the offence of atrocity alleged against Kadave are not made out".
With PTI inputs
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