What Has Supreme Court Sought To Know To Take A Call On Death Penalty Under SC/ST Act?
What Has Supreme Court Sought To KUnder SC/ST Act?
The apex court has made two very basic queries from the Government while hearing a PIL that has pleaded for striking down the “unconstitutional” law. THE INDIAN TRIBAL reports
Over four years since lawyer Rishi Malhotra moved the Supreme Court seeking the striking down of the mandatory death penalty provision under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in a particular offence, there is finally some forward movement in the PIL.
What Is The Offence Being Referred To?
Loosely put, the Act stipulates a death sentence only for a non-Scheduled Caste or non-Scheduled Tribe person who falsely implicates a member of the SC/ST community in a case that results in the latter’s conviction and execution.
To quote Section 3(2)(i) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989:
(2) Whoever, not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe:- i) gives or fabricates false evidence intending thereby to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause, any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to be convicted of an offence which is capital by the law for the time being in force shall be punished with imprisonment for life and with fine; and if an innocent member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe be convicted and executed in consequence of such false or fabricated evidence, the person who gives or fabricate such false evidence, shall be punished with death.
What Does The PIL State?
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in 2019 stated that the said law is ultra vires of the Constitution and against the fundamental tenets of Constitutional laws.
The advocate told the court that the provision is “manifestly arbitrary, disproportionate, excessive, unreasonable, unjust, unfair, harsh, unusual and cruel”. He requested the Supreme Court to strike down the provision.
Citing various other sections which were quashed or amended by the court earlier, the advocate said: “As and when an occasion had arisen where the mandatory imposition of death penalty is called in question in different statutes, either this court by exercising its Constitutional powers of judicial review has struck down those provisions by holding it to be unconstitutional and void or the legislature itself has amended those provisions by removing the mandatory imposition of death penalty.”
His plea further said: “The legislature cannot make relevant circumstances irrelevant, depriving the courts of their legitimate jurisdiction to exercise discretion in not imposing death sentence in appropriate cases and compel them to shut their eyes to mitigating circumstances and inflict upon them the dubious and unconscionable duty of imposing a preordained sentence of death.”
The PIL also referred to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, which initially provided for mandatory death sentence and was amended in 2014 by the legislature itself and further provided for an option of awarding death sentence or any other imprisonment as specified in the Act.
What’s The Supreme Court’s Take On It?
Hearing the PIL on February 13, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan dwelled on the “discrimination” that an SC/ST member committing the same offence will not be awarded death penalty.
“Suppose, false evidence is given by a SC/ST member which causes the execution of a SC/ST member? Then no death penalty. What is the reasonable classification here?” Justice Surya Kant questioned.
Justice Kant then asked the Attorney General R Venkataramani to give a note on “why there should a discrimination between SC/ST and non-SC/ST person under the legal person if the offence is the same”.
The SC also asked the Attorney General to inform it if anybody has been prosecuted under the abovementioned penal provision.
The apex court then asked Malhotra if there was any single instance of conviction under this provision. The lawyer replied that he did not have data regarding that.
With no immediate data available, the Supreme Court asked the Attorney General to try to get information and submit a short note on the issue. “Is there any single instance where conviction has taken place. Has any conviction ever taken place? Can you use your good offices to find out any prosecution under this provision,” the bench sought to know from the Attorney General.
The apex court also suggested that the Parliament could consider amending the death penalty provision to establish a prolonged fixed jail term instead.
A longer jail term, as envisioned in the Supreme Court’s Swamy Shraddananda ruling, could be imposed beyond the usual 14-year limit for remission eligibility or even life imprisonment.
Come May 14, the date of next hearing, information on the two queries of the apex court will be known.
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Tribal communities have set good examples of self-governance: President Murmu
President Droupadi Murmu has said that people from other sections of the society can learn a lot from the tribal society. “Tribal communities have set good examples of self-governance. We can learn from them how to live joyfully in harmony with nature. We can learn from them to live with minimal resources, without harming nature. We can also learn about women empowerment,” she said, addressing a gathering of tribal women associated with various Self Help Groups of Rajasthan at Beneshwar Dham, Rajasthan on February 14. She said India has resolved to become self-reliant. India can be self-reliant only when every unit of India is self-reliant. She appreciated Self Help Groups and everyone associated with them for promoting self-reliance. She was happy to note that Self Help Groups are not only providing working capital but also doing commendable work in creating human capital and social capital. The President said that the entire society has to make efforts to implement the idea of women-led development. Education and skill development should be promoted among women. By doing this, women will be able to become equal partners in the progress of the country and the world. She expressed confidence that women will play a leading role in making India a developed nation. She said that only on the strength of their success, the future of India will be bright.
News / India News / House of man accused of thrashing tribal person demolished in Madhya Pradesh
House of man accused of thrashing tribal person demolished in Madhya Pradesh
ByMayank Bhargava
Feb 15, 2024 08:49 AM IST
The house was demolished days after the Madhya Pradesh high court said it has become fashionable to demolish houses without complying with the principle of natural justice
The authorities have demolished the house of a man accused of thrashing a tribal person and hanging him upside down in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul three months back. The assault came to light after a video of it went viral on social media.
A local revenue official claimed the house was demolished as it was illegally constructed. (PTI/Representative)
Sohrab Hussain’s house was demolished a day after tea seller Ashish Parte, 24, complained to the police that six people stripped, thrashed, and hung him upside down.
The demolition is the latest in a series of such actions in Madhya Pradesh. It came days after the Madhya Pradesh high court on February 1 granted compensation to two people after their homes were demolished in Ujjain without any notice.
The court said it has become fashionable to demolish houses without complying with the principle of natural justice. It said it appears that a criminal case was registered against one of the family members of the petitioners before the demolitions were carried out. “It is not the case of the respondent that in the entire area under the Municipal Corporation Ujjain, these are the only two houses that are constructed without permission to be demolished.”
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In his complaint in the Betul case, Parte said one Rinkesh Chauhan took him to Hussain’s residence on November 15 and tried to extort money. Parte said they later asked him to pay money weekly. He added when he refused, they stripped him, tied his hands and feet, hung him from the ceiling, and beat him with a belt and a shovel. The accused also filmed the assault.
Betul police superintendent Siddharth Chaudhary said that they acted immediately after the video went viral and registered a case under Indian Penal Code’s sections 294 (using obscene language), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 342 (wrongful confinement), 327 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort property) and 365 (kidnapping) and under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The accused remained on the run.
Atul Srivastava, a local revenue official, claimed Hussain’s house was demolished as it was illegally constructed.
THE GOAN NETWORK | FEBRUARY 16, 2024, 12:46 AM IST
PANAJI
While on one side the leaders of Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Scheduled Caste (SCs) communities are busy fighting for political reservation, people belonging to these backward castes are waiting for justice from atrocities, with nearly 50 per cent of such cases pending disposal since over the last one decade.
As many as 502 cases of atrocities against SC and ST were filed with the ST & SC Commission from 2011-12 to 2022-23, of which 248 are pending disposal. The Commission has closed 264 cases as of last year.
The data clearly shows that the atrocity cases have witnessed a rise over the years. The maximum number of 88 cases was reported in the year 2020-21 and in 2017-18, that saw 73 cases. It was in 2011-12 that reported the least number of 11 cases.
The year 2020-21 and 2021-22 saw a large number of cases being settled by the Commission. Altogether 118 were closed in these two years alone, while the remaining 146 cases were disposed off in a period of ten years.
According to the Commission, the word ‘Atrocity’ has not been defined in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (prevention of atrocities) Act 1989. However, the Act has specified the offences punishable under the Act such as intent to cause injury, insult or annoyance, wrongfully occupies or cultivates land belonging to this community, outrages modesty, denial of customary rights, etc.
“While filing complainants at the police station, it is observed that ST or SC people fail to mention the Caste name and also fail to produce certificate, due to which the police are unable to register the FIR under the Act and thus avoids immediate arrest,” the Commission pointed out adding that the Commission too takes cognizance of the case only after production of the caste certificate.
The Goa Commission for SC/ST is a Quasi-Judicial authority and a Court of Atrocity, performs its function by acquiring the powers of Civil Court, Inquire and recommend to the concerned disciplinary authority to initiate disciplinary action, investigate and monitor all matters, look into specific complainant regarding deprivation of the Rights and safeguards in the interest of SC/ST, inquire into any unfair means. Any recommendation passed by the Chairperson can be only challenged in the High Court of the State.
women outsiders with fair complexion', says Trinamool leader on Sandeshkhali case Thu, Feb 15 2024 01:51:57 PM
Kolkata, Feb 15 (IANS): As the criticism mounts on the West Bengal government over the Sandeshkhali case, a section of the ruling Trinamool Congress leaders have started describing the protests by the women as being “orchestrated” than being “spontaneous”.
The Trinamool leaders are labeling the women protesters as “outsiders”, and to establish this 'outsider' theory, a supplementary theory pertaining to the “complexion” of these female protesters is being floated.
This twin theory has surfaced just before the scheduled visit by a field-inspection team of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) to Sandeshkhali on Thursday, considering a major section of the protesting women there hail from Scheduled Caste communities.
Trinamool Congress legislator from Ashoknagar Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district Narayan Goswami, said, “The people hailing from the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community have certain specific features as regards to body structure and skin complexion. The women at Sandeshkhali, who are protesting in front of the camera, mostly have extremely fair complexion. So the question is whether they really hail from the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe background,” Goswami said.
He also claimed that the party has done some on-ground investigation which has revealed that the protests by women at Sandeshkhali were mainly orchestrated by CPI(M). “If necessary we will provide all such details to the police as well. The protesters are mainly members of the women’s wing of CPI(M), who are just narrating scripted stories in front of the camera. If we get a chance to conduct a public meeting at Sandeshkhali in the coming days, we will surely highlight these matters,” Goswami added.
Reacting to these theories, the leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari said that he will appeal to NCSC to propose for an immediate arrest of Goswami for his comments relating to skin complexion. “Actually the misdeeds of Trinamool Congress at Sandeshkhali have become a national issue and as a face-saving exercise their leaders are floating such weird theories,” he said.
Maharashtra's Groundbreaking Inter-Caste Marriage Scheme: A 3 Lakh Rupee Incentive to Break Caste Barriers
In a move to empower unity, Maharashtra offers 3 lakh rupees to inter-caste couples, while India's youth are recognized for their potential to overcome social barriers through emotional intelligence and empathy.
Maharashtra's Groundbreaking Inter-Caste Marriage Scheme: A 3 Lakh Rupee Incentive to Break Caste Barriers
In a groundbreaking move to foster unity and dismantle caste barriers, the Maharashtra government unveiled the "Maharashtra Inter-Caste Marriage Scheme 2024" on February 15, 2024. This initiative offers a financial incentive of 3 lakh rupees to inter-caste couples, empowering them to follow their hearts without fear of societal repercussions.
Aimed at promoting understanding and reducing caste-based prejudices, the "Maharashtra Inter-Caste Marriage Scheme 2024" provides couples with a substantial financial boost. The scheme is open to Maharashtra residents who have married someone from a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe within the state, irrespective of their income.
Empowering India's Youth: The Potential to Overcome Social Divisions
The Importance of Emotional Intelligence and Empathy
Kirloskar highlights the critical role of emotional intelligence and empathy in overcoming social barriers. She urges political, economic, and civil society establishments to empower the youth by nurturing these qualities. By doing so, the next generation can pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable society.
As Maharashtra takes a significant step towards dismantling caste barriers, the "Maharashtra Inter-Caste Marriage Scheme 2024" stands as a testament to the power of financial incentives in promoting unity and understanding. With the support and empowerment of India's youth, the nation is poised to break free from the shackles of caste divisions and embrace a future rooted in empathy and emotional intelligence.
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POSTED ON FEBRUARY 16, 2
POSTED ON FEBRUARY 16, 202
Neeraj Bunkar,
PhD Candidate, English, Linguistics and Philosophy, Nottingham Trent University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.Courtesy : Jara News
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Sivaji.UT news.Chief,kadapa.AP. In India There are 143 reserved MPs and 62 SC.STs won in general seats.143(reserved seats)+62(general seats)=205..sc.st out of 543..Lok Sabha MPs.38%.Dr Ambedkar is winning slowly in Dr Ambedkar India....good. GOOD NEWS. The facts from EC.website.SC.ST.. 20%(19.7) are elected in General Seats merritoriously. Dalit,SC.ST candidates in general seats rarely win. 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘 ALL INDIA LEVEL ✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️ In all India level Overall, since 2004, 5,953 SC/ST candidates have contested from (general seats ) unreserved seats in Lok Sabha elections, with 62 (or just over 1%) of them winning. In state Assembly elections, the number is almost similar, at 20,644 such candidates, and 246 recorded wins (1.19%). Lok Sabha elections Since 2004, the highest number of SC/ST winners in general seats were seen in 2024 last year’s Lok Sabha elections, at 22 (two of them women) – though, their number h...
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