By rescinding the provision that diluted clauses of the SC/ST Act, the top court has prioritised societal sensitivities

With mounting political and societal pressure and given the vulnerability of Dalits across the country, the Supreme Court has recalled its earlier order diluting provisions of arrest under the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The verdict last year had done away with the clause of immediate arrest of the accused without proper investigation and provisioned for bail, both of which were found to be easy to play around with and intimidate the victims of hate crimes. Dalit anger has been simmering since and the atrocities against them have spiralled out of control, an abuse being committed against a Scheduled Caste (SC) member every 15 minutes by some estimates. Last year, the apex court had sought to clarify the application process of the law so that it was not subject to misuse by either the offender or the complainant and was not seen as an automatic and instant disbursal of justice. So it made a judgement call by insisting that “immediate arrest” be replaced by “arrest only after preliminary enquiry,” thereby eliminating the “heat of the moment” factor and fixing the culpability of the real offender indulging in atrocities against Dalits. But in keeping to legal niceties, it ignored the perception that was created, that the provisions empowered the accused and weakened the complainant. There were fears that the latter would not report atrocities or wrong-doing if the provision of unqualified, non-bailable arrest was done away with, encouraging coercive hit-backs during inquiry. As it is, Dalits find it very difficult to register a simple FIR and with some time lag implied in last year’s verdict, the probe itself was feared to be compromised badly. As of now, conviction rates in crimes against Dalits and tribals add up to 23.8 per cent and 16.4 per cent compared to the 40.2 per cent in general criminal cases. Besides, the court, as it rightly admitted this week, had, under the veneer of fair play,  assumed that SC/ST community members could cook up false cases, that they could be “a liar or crook.” The judge regretted that the umbrella assumption was against “basic human dignity” and could bear heavy on an exploited people, who are already at the receiving end of upper caste authoritarianism. To that extent, the court did well to take a holistic view of sensitivities, one that had been subverted by looking into technicalities. 

For the ruling BJP, this comes as a big relief,  considering Dalits have been agitated over the death of Rohith Vemula, the beating of Dalit youths at Una in Gujarat, the demolition of the press of Babasaheb Ambedkar and the riots in Bhima Koregaon. In fact, in Maharashtra, Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar has been leading a convincing charge against the current regime and is spearheading a renewed movement for legitimacy. With Assembly elections due in the State, the new verdict could not have come at a better time for the BJP. Considering that nearly a fourth of Dalit voters voted for the BJP back in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in consolidating that vote pie and turn it into an asset base with his welfarist schemes. But after Vemula’s suicide and the attacks in Maharashtra, it is the new-age Dalit voter who is questioning his/her choice and is at the forefront of new assertive agitations. But a movement is still scattered and not coalesced enough and BJP would like to stem that hereon.