The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018 which restored the provision that no anticipatory bail be granted to the accused.
A bench of Justice A K Sikri, S Abduk Nazeer and M R Shah said it would be appropriate if the petitions challenging the provisions of the Act are also heard along with the pending review petition.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for a private party said that the new amendments to the Act will create chaos if people continued to be arrested under false charges.
Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for another party, said that since the Centre's review petition against the March 20, 2018 verdict was pending before the apex court, the effect of amendment should be stayed.
To the bench said that it would not pass any order with regard to stay.
Parliament on August 9 last year had passed the bill to overturn the apex court order concerning certain safeguards against arrest under the SC and ST law.
During Thursday's hearing Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for Centre, said that review petition and petitions against the Act should be heard together as there were similar questions of law.
The bench noted that in the Centre's review petition the court has issued notice and will now be listed for hearing on merits.
"In the said review petition, notice had been issued and, therefore, the same is to be heard on merits in the open Court. Since outcome of the said review petition would have some bearings on these petitions, it would be appropriate if these petitions are also heard along with the review petition," the bench said.
It allowed the counsel for the parties to mention the matter before the bench headed by Chief Justice of India for fixing the date for hearing of the matters.
On March 20, 2018, the apex court had taken note of the rampant misuse of the stringent SC/ST Act against government servants and private individuals and said that there would be no immediate arrest on any complaint filed under the law.
The top court had earlier said that the new amendments to the SC/ST law passed by Parliament cannot be stayed and had sought the Centre's response on pleas challenging the provisions.
The pleas have sought declaration of the new amendments to the Schedule Castes and Schedules Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as ultra vires.
The amendments rule out any provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities against SC/STs, notwithstanding any court order.
They provide that no preliminary inquiry will be required for registering a criminal case and an arrest under this law would not be subject to any approval.
The court was hearing the pleas alleging that the two Houses of Parliament had 'arbitrarily' decided to amend the law and restored the previous provisions in such a manner so that an innocent cannot avail the right of anticipatory bail.
