Atrocities Act: Maharashtra government to file review petition against Supreme Court orders

The state social justice minister, Rajkumar Badole, made the announcement on Saturday.

The Maharashtra government will file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s order that bans automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989, a legislation meant to protect the marginalised communities from abuse and discrimination.

The state social justice minister, Rajkumar Badole, made the announcement on Saturday.

He said that the review petition will be filed through the Maharashtra State Commission for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.

The bench of justices AK Goel and UU Lalit on March 20 had ruled that no arrests can be made under the Act without prior permission. It also held that a court can grant a pre-bail arrest (anticipatory bail) if it, prima facie, finds the complaint is an abuse of the law, false, motivated and intended to blackmail, or to harass a person. This was done to prevent the rampant misuse of the tough provisions of the law, according to the judges.

Badole said that they will also try to get the case transferred to the Constitutional Bench of the apex court as the legislation, which is being passed by the Parliament, cannot be changed due to an isolated case. He said the government will take the further steps after taking advice from the Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal.