Another judgment from the Supreme Court rejected the charges based on the sections of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Judgment after judgment the Apex court has concluded that the relevant provisions of SC ST Act would apply only if the accused commits the said act with the knowledge that the victim is from the SC or ST Community.
The takeaway from this short judgment is that – ” If the necessary ingredients of an offense are not made out then the court is not obligated to frame charge for such offense against the accused “ – Reference is made to ” @ Pappu Bhudharmal Kalani Vs. State of Maharashtra reported in AIR 2001 SC “.
The aforementioned principle applies to every other criminal case, not only to the offenses under the SC ST Act.
It is high time that all the victims of the abuse of SC ST laws initiate a case for Malicious Prosecution, just to set a healthy precedent.
