April 03, 2018: The Supreme Court has refused to stay its March 20 verdict banning automatic arrest and registration of cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The division bench of Justices A K Goel and UU Lalit, however, said that it will consider the Centre’s review petition for detailed hearing. It said the matter is listed after ten days and asked all parties in the case to file their written submissions within stipulated time. The government had yesterday filed a review petition seeking review of the court’s order.
The Supreme Court, while hearing the submissions by the Attorney-General (AG), KK Venugopal, observed, that people who are agitating have not read the verdict properly and have been misled by vested interests. The bench said that they have not diluted any provision of SC/ST Act and only safeguarded interest of innocents from being arrested.
The apex court pointed out that there is no anticipatory bail or there is no forum for a person accused under the act to seek any relief, in the case. It said that provisions of SC/ST Act cannot be used to terrorize the innocents. (AIR News)
