SC/ST Act: Apex court gives time to petitioner to collect data on FIRs lodged

The Supreme Court Friday granted four weeks to an organisation, which has filed a petition seeking a direction that the original Schedule Castes and Schedules Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 be "maintained", to collect data on the number of FIRs lodged in India under this law.

On August 9, new amendments to the SC/ST Act were passed by Parliament which overturned the March 20 verdict of the apex court.

In its March 20 verdict, the court had held that there will be no immediate arrest on any complaint filed under the law.

It had also passed a slew of directions, and said that a public servant can be arrested in cases lodged under the SC/ST Act only after prior approval by the competent authority.

The Centre had earlier filed a plea in the top court seeking review of its judgement after several states were rocked by violence and clashes on April 2 following a 'Bharat Bandh' call given by several SC/ST organisations protesting against the verdict.

The matter came up for hearing on Friday before a bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan.

The counsel appearing for petitioner -- All India Federation of SC/ST Organizations -- told the bench that they were in the process of collecting country-wide data on number of FIRs lodged under the law.

When the lawyer referred to the plea filed by the Centre seeking review of the verdict, the bench said, "The petition is already pending. You can intervene in that matter."