Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday said that the Centre was considering amendment of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to pacify Dalit community raged by its “dilution” as the recent Supreme Court Judgment incorporated preliminary inquiry and provisions for anticipatory bail in the Act.
Prime Minister Modi had recently said that his government aspires to bring a legislation which would give more power to the SC/ST Act.
Speaking to The Policy Times recently, LJP MP Chirag Paswan demanded that the government brings an ordinance immediately to overturn the Supreme Court judgment that led to massive protests across the country by Dalit communities on April 2.
Reports suggest that a similar protest may take place on August 9 if the government doesn’t bring a law restoring the previous SC/ST Act.
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Recently, the government has drawn flak from certain quarters for appointing Adarsh Kumar Goel as NGT chairperson, the same judge who passed March 20 judgment, banning in which immediate arrest of a person accused of insulting or injuring a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe member was struck down.
The judgment also made provisions for “preliminary inquiry”, and said that FIR cannot be registered unless the complaint of a Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe member is authenticated by the investigating officer of DSP rank.
