Punjab and Haryana High Court: SC/ST Act being misused to get relief

Saurabh Malik

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Chandigarh, January 8

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that the objective of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and its rules to compensate victims of atrocities was apparently being exploited by mischievous elements, undermining the compensatory provisions intended for genuine victims.

Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj also made it clear that any attempt to commit fraud on the provisions of the statute by misrepresenting the facts and making false accusations to obtain benefits should be curbed.

The ruling came in a case where the petitioner, a woman, along with her nephew, claimed that they were eyewitnesses to her son’s murder by ‘persons of dominant caste’. But both resiled from their ocular version while appearing as prosecution witnesses and specifically stated that the accused facing trial had not inflicted injuries.

Justice Bhardwaj asserted that the Act was notified to prevent commission of offences and atrocities against the member of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and to provide for special courts for expeditious disposal of such matters, as well as relief and rehabilitation of the victims.

He observed that the question for adjudication before the court was whether an individual could claim himself to be a victim of an atrocity only on the basis of a statement made before the police under Section 154 or 161 of the CrPC, especially when the person had disowned the same while deposing before the court of law.

Justice Bhardwaj added that the basic requirement of being a ‘victim’ for invoking the provisions of the Act came under a cloud as the petitioner resiled from the statement. Financial assistance under the rules was not a scheme for drawing assistance from public exchequer by mere registration of a case known to the complainant to be false.