what are the provision under act of 1989 for the land of adivasi?
Answers
The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to prevent atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Act is popularly known as the SC/ST Act, POA, the Prevention of Atrocities Act, or simply the Atrocities Act.
It was enacted when the provisions of the existing laws (such as the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955 and Indian Penal Code) were found to be inadequate to check these crimes (defined as 'atrocities' in the Act)[1]. Recognising the continuing gross indignities and offences against Scheduled Castes and Tribes, the Parliament passed the ‘Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.
The preamble of the Act also states that the Act is:
“to prevent the commission of offences of atrocities against the members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, to provide for Special Courts for the trial of such offences and for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of such offences and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”
Thus objectives of the Act clearly emphasise the intention of the government to deliver justice to these communities through proactive efforts to enable them to live in society with dignity and self-esteem and without fear or violence or suppression from the dominant castes. The practice of untouchability, in its overt and covert form was made a cognizable and non compoundable offence, and strict punishment is provided for any such offence.
The SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 with stringent provisions (which extends to whole of India except the State of Jammu & Kashmir) was enacted on 9 September 1989. Section 23(1) of the Act authorises the Central Government to frame rules for carrying out the purpose of the Act. Drawing power from this section, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules of 1995 were framed.[2] The rules for the Act were notified on 31 March 1995.
The purpose of the Act was to help the social inclusion of Dalits into Indian society, but the Act has failed to live up to its expectations admitted by the Union Minister for Home Affairs in parliament on 30 August 2010 (quoted below).[3].
A number of cases of misuse of this Act has been reported from different parts of the country as mentioned in the Supreme Court verdict of 20 March 2018. In this verdict, the Supreme Court of India banned immediate arrest of a person accused of insulting or injuring a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe member to protect innocents from arbitrary arrest.
Answer:
The Adivasi activists, including C.K. Janu, believe that Adivasis can use the 1989 Act to fight against dispossession because this Act guarantees the tribals not to be dispossessed from the land resources forcibly. They specifically pointed out that this Act merely confirms what has already been promised to the tribal people in the Constitution that the land owned by any tribal people cannot be sold to or bought by non-tribal people. In cases where this has happened, the constitution also guarantees that the right of the tribal people to repossess their land.