Question

what is SC/ST act? write its merit and demerit .

Answer 1

The Supreme Court order banning automatic arrest and registration of cases for alleged harassment of SCs and STs will dilute the law which aims to protect the marginalised, the government is likely to tell the top court.

In its review petition to be filed in the apex court this week, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is likely to say that the SC order will weaken the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, sources in the government said. The ministry could also plead that the latest order would reduce the fear of law and may result in more violations, the sources said.

The top court had recently banned automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The law protects the marginalised communities against discrimination and atrocities.

A delegation of NDA’s SC and ST MPs, led by LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and Union Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot, had last week met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the apex court’s judgement diluting provisions of the SC-ST atrocities act.

Gehlot recently wrote to Prasad about a review plea against the Supreme Court verdict. He noted that there were concerns that the order would make the law “ineffective” and adversely impact dispensation of justice to Dalits and tribals.

Answer 2

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.

LEVELS OF CRIMES AGAINST SCHEDULED CATSES LISTED BY THE SCHEDULED CASTES AND THE SCHEDULED TRIBES(PREVENTION  OF ATROCITIES ), 1989 ;

Whoever, not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe,—

(a) puts any inedible or obnoxious substance into the mouth of a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or forces such member to drink or eat such inedible or obnoxious substance;  

(b) dumps excreta, sewage, carcasses or any other obnoxious substance in premises, or at the entrance of the premises, occupied by a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe;  

(c) with intent to cause injury, insult or annoyance to any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, dumps excreta, waste matter, carcasses or any other obnoxious substance in his neighbourhood;

(d)garlands with footwear or parades naked or semi-naked a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe;  

(e) forcibly commits on a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe any act, such as removing clothes from the person, forcible tonsuring of head, removing moustaches, painting face or body or any other similar act, which is derogatory to human dignity;  

(f) wrongfully occupies or cultivates any land, owned by, or in the possession of or allotted to, or notified by any competent authority to be allotted to, a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, or gets such land transferred;

(g) wrongfully dispossesses a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe from his land or premises or interferes with the enjoyment of his rights, including forest rights, over any land or premises or water or irrigation facilities or destroys the crops or takes away the produce therefrom.