Observing that the Atrocities Act is misused, the Gujarat High Court has lamented the way such abuses of provisions provided by the law adversely impact the non-scheduled caste and non-tribal people.
Two BJP members from Chotila town in Surendranagar district had an altercation during an election in 2018. According to the background reported by a national daily, one of them accused the petitioner before the HC, Jivanbhai Makwana, of assault and hurling caste-ist slurs.
Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Makwana under the provisions of the IPC and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Makwana moved HC for quashing the FIR.
“With great pain it is noted that, many a time, the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act are being misused, some time by the complainant and/or some time by the concerned authorities,” Justice Bhatt observed, adding that the case was a blatant misuse of the law. He said the complaint was politically motivated as could be gauged by the lack of evidence found during investigations that could justify the provisions of the Atrocities Act.
“In such a situation, the sufferer would be the non-scheduled caste and non-scheduled tribe qua these provisions, by which damage is caused to the fabric of social harmony in the society,” the court said.
The HC further ordered that the complainant should return the compensation received as a victim of caste atrocity to the state, assuming he received such an amount from the government.
