Government to file review plea on SC/ST Act order

The government will file a review petition in the Supreme Court on its judgment that protects public servants and private employees from arbitrary arrests under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Aathwale said that apex court judgment was not proper for the Dalit community and he was personally against it.

"The government will soon file a review petition against this judgment," the Republican Party of India chief said in a statement, adding that he personally met BJP President Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the issue.

He said the Centre would definitely take a call after studying the detailed judgment.

The Minister said that all the SC/ST members of Parliament are united over the issue and will not allow any kind of dilution of the existing act.

The judgment was described as unfortunate by many of the political parties including the Congress.

A delegation of SC/ST MPs on Wednesday met Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot demanding a review petition.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the arrest of an accused under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is not mandatory and recourse to coercive action would be only after preliminary inquiry and sanction by the competent authority.

Coupled with this, the court said, that there was no "absolute bar against grant of anticipatory bail in cases under the Atrocities Act if no prima facie case is made out or where on judicial scrutiny the complaint is found to be prima facie mala fide".

--IANS

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