Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Stop misuse of Atrocity Act' that was published in Newsband

Stop misuse of Atrocity Act

There is an urgent need for procedural safeguards to curb false accusations work against the interest of protecting the oppressed from discrimination and caste-based atrocities. The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, is being rampantly misused to settle personal scores and harass adversaries. There is need for guidelines to prevent its misuse.

In an ideal system, as long as every charge is judicially scrutinised and every investigation or prosecution is fair and honest, one need not worry about misuse and its adverse effects. However, social realities are far from being ideal.

This SC/ST Act is atrocious, unconstitutional widely misused for blackmail - 90 % of the complaints are fake. Hard working employees are unable to bear the constant fear of this act without bail. It is high time the law is repealed or struck down by courts since it gravely affects fundamental rights of citizens envisaged in the constitution.

The punishment for misuse of Anti-atrocities law should at least be equal to the punishment for which an innocent person has been wrongly accused under the provisions of Anti-atrocities law. This will help in curbing the misuse of the Anti-atrocities law.

The law is mostly misused by educated SC/ST employees employed in Government or Government owned enterprises and in some private companies too. The problem is with all the laws which shifts the proof from accuser to the accused. In these kind of laws the accused person is held guilty and the onus is on him to prove that he is not guilty. This gives undue advantage to the accuser and he goes scot-free even if it was proved that his complaint was malafide.

There were several thousands of misuses over past few decades, so finally some more checks and balances are needed.

Those offices which do not employ many SC/ST employees has probably not had any personal experience of misconduct by them. The SC/ST employees are the biggest menace and nuisance for other community employees and supervisors. Nobody can question them for any misconduct, ill behaviour, causing losses or inconvenience, not punctual at work, etc. In many cases others will have to complete the work of SC/ST employees as they would leave their seats any time without informing anyone. The supervisors are really scared of the SC/ST employees. The Supreme Court observation and directions to the government, though belated, is a big relief for government and public sector other community staff. If the Supreme Court had annulled the Act itself, it would have been a blessing for other communities. The political parties for their vote-share purposes pamper the SC/ST people at the cost of others.