Post-High Court Bail, Supreme Court May Review Its SC/ST Ruling

The Supreme Court may have a relook at its recent ruling diluting the SC/ST Act to prevent any immediate arrest and denial of anticipatory bail to the accused except needed in bonafide cases. A three-judge bench indicated this while considering a petition challenging an order of the Gujarat High Court granting anticipatory bail to some people accused of beating up a Dalit.

A two-judge SC bench comprising Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and UU Lalit had earlier ruled that before arresting anyone under the law, a preliminary inquiry should be done to ensure that it was not a mala fide case.

The court had toned down the provisions in a bid to prevent its misuse and protect honest public servants discharging bona fide duties from being blackmailed with false cases.

The ruling had drawn criticism from activists, who claimed that it had diluted law intended to protect Dalits from any harassment by upper castes. It had also triggered a political uproar.

On Monday, a bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra issued notices including to the Gujarat and central governments on the petition challenging the high court order.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave argued that the high court had wrongly used the top court ruling to grant anticipatory bail to the accused.

He also said the top court judgement was against earlier largerbench rulings that had upheld the legality of the SC/ST Act. He and senior advocate Harin P Raval claimed that their clients were poor tribal people and the accused were influential builders.

Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Yatin Oza represented the accused in court. A single-judge of the Gujarat High Court had on March 21 granted pre-arrest bail to 15 people in the case. Their bail plea was first rejected by the trial court but the high court overturned the decision, Dave alleged, a day after the top court’s ruling came in.

The notice issued by the three-judge bench on Monday indicated that the ruling might well be revisited by a larger bench or a Constitution bench. The court would hear the case next in the first week of May.