Supreme Court Upholds Changes to SC/ST Atrocities Law

In exceptional cases, High Courts can quash cases to prevent misuse

- Krishnadas Rajagopal

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 2018 amendment which barred persons accused of committing atrocities against those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes from getting anticipatory bail.

But two of the judges on the Bench, Justices Arun Mishra, and Vineet Saran, held in their joint opinion that a High Court would also have an “inherent power” to grant anticipatory bail in cases in which prima facie an offense under the anti-atrocities law is not made out.

The two judges held that a High Court, in “exceptional cases”, could quash cases to prevent the misuse of the anti-atrocities law.

Justice Bhat’s caveat

The third judge on the Bench, Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, in his separate opinion, however, added a caveat to what his two companion judges on the Bench said about the use of this “inherent power” by the High Courts.

Justice Bhat stressed that the courts should take care to use this power to grant anticipatory bail “only sparingly and in very exceptional cases”.