Centre to Supreme Court: The Order 'Diluting' SC/ST Act has Resulted in Great Damage to the Country
The Centre has also asked the Supreme court to immediately roll back its judgement on the SC/ST Act.
New Delhi, April 12: The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the apex court’s order of “diluting” the SC/ST act has caused great damage to the country and that the Supreme Court is mistaken if it thinks that it has the “power to make legislations”. The Centre has also asked the court to immediately roll back its judgement on the SC/ST Act. It said that the apex court should restore the old act that makes implementation of punishment for atrocities on SC/STs as legislated and prescribed by the Parliament.
The row over Supreme Court's March 20 ruling, which banned the immediate arrest of a person accused of hurting or causing harm to a person of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe category, has sparked outrage in the country with dalit groups calling a Bharat Bandh on April 2 which saw violence and resulted in the death of at least 11 people. Many Dalit groups had also blamed the Modi government for the Supreme Court decision on the act alleging that the Centre did not put forward a "serious and strong" argument in defense of the act.
The Supreme Court on Centre’s appeal to take back its judgement had refused to change its March 20 ruling and had commented that its order had not diluted the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in any way. The ruling Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit said that it merely implemented Section 41 of the CrPc. The Supreme Court also observed that those protesting had not read the order properly and the ruling bench asserted that the judgement was to protect an innocent from getting booked wrongly under the act.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 12, 2018 06:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).