Supreme Court dismisses plea challenging 2018 SC/ST Act amendments

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, September 23, dismissed a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the 2018 amendments to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which restored stringent provisions of the law, including restrictions on anticipatory bail for the accused.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant declined to entertain the petition, noting that the validity of the 2018 amendments had already been upheld by the Supreme Court in 2020.

The petitioner had argued that the restrictions, including the bar on anticipatory bail, amounted to "reverse discrimination," and contended that conviction rates under the law were low, alleging the provisions were prone to misuse. The petitioner also submitted that nearly Rs 490 crore had been disbursed as compensation under the law.

The 2018 amendments were introduced by Parliament after the Supreme Court's March 2018 ruling in Subhash Kashinath Mahajan v. State of Maharashtra had temporarily done away with the bar on anticipatory bail and mandated a preliminary inquiry before registering cases under the Act, a decision that triggered widespread Dalit protests and a Bharat Bandh. The amended Act, which restored the original safeguards, was subsequently upheld by a three-judge Supreme Court bench in February 2020.