The court said the special law discriminates among offenders on the basis of caste.
A Delhi court today questioned the legal validity of a special law enacted to protect Dalit and tribal communities saying it discriminates among offenders on the basis of caste.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau questioned the legality of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and sought a re-look into it while sentencing 15 people, convicted on September 24 for their alleged involvement in the April, 2010, killings of a 70-year-old Dalit and his physically challenged teenaged daughter.
"The SC/ST (POA) Act, 1989 is one such legislation whose provisions create a distinction on the ground of caste in matters of imposition of sentence in case of certain offences, thereby creating an anomalous situation," said ASJ Lau.
She added ".....where on the one hand, it (the Act) provides a stringent punishment for imprisonment for life in case the victim of atrocity is member of SC/ ST and the violator is not a member of SC/ST but would let go a violator who is a member of the SC/ST (irrespective of whether the victim is a member of the SC/ ST or not)."
The court said, similarly, in a case where the victim is not a Dalit or tribal member, the punishment to the offender for the same offence would be under the general Indian Penal Code which provides for judicial discretion in imposing sentence which could be lesser than that provided under the SC/ST Act.
"Why this distinction when the crime committed is the same and the victim suffers as much?," the judge said.
ASJ Lau argued "any distinction in implementation of penal provisions on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth weakens the secular democratic fabric, leading to polarisation and resulting in division of the country."
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