New Delhi,
Insisting that innocent persons needed to be protected, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to keep in abeyance its order providing for safeguards against misuse of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act, 1989.

“The innocents cannot be terrorised by the provisions of the SC/ST Act. We don’t want to deprive anyone of the right to life and we make ourselves very clear that we are not against the Act or the complainants,” said the Bench of Justice AK Goel and Justice UU Lalit.

Justifying its verdict, the Bench said unlike other laws, provisions for anticipatory bail were not there under the SC/ST Act and an innocent person had no other forum to seek remedy. In an apparent reference to violent protests against its March 20 order, it said, “Those agitating may not have read the judgment or could have been misled by vested interests.”

The Bench turned down requests by Attorney General KK Venugopal and Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta (representing Maharashtra) to keep its directions in abeyance during pendency of its review petition. It, however, clarified that its order would not come in the way of giving compensation to victims of atrocities under the Act.

“A perusal of the order makes it clear that there is no bar on compensation or other immediate relief being given to the victim member of the SC/ST… There is also no bar on registration of FIR under any provision of the penal code or any other law and the offences under the SC/ST Act being added later, if necessary.”

Deviating from normal practice, the Bench gave an open court hearing to the Centre. To Venugopal’s argument that Parliament had prescribed a procedure established by law (SC/ST Act) and it couldn’t be dispensed with, the Bench said, “The procedure has to be fair, just and reasonable.”

When Venugopal contended that Article 21 also applied to victims of atrocities, the Bench said: “Yes, it applies to all. Arrest is not necessary even on filing of a complaint under the Act as it is a substantive law.”