Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,1989

The Act was passed to make punishment more stringent and it made untouchability a criminal & non-bailable offence.

Some Major Features of the Act

• Creation of new types of offences not in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or in the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955 (PCRA).
• Crimes among SCs and STs or between STs and SCs do not come under the purview of this Act.
• Enhanced minimum punishment for public servants.
• Punishment for neglect of duties by a public servant (Section 4).
• Cancellation of arms licenses in the areas identified where an atrocity may take place or has taken place and grant arms licenses to SCs and STs.
• Denial of anticipatory bail (Section 18) provided in Section 438 of the CrPC.
• Denial of probation to convict (Section 19).
• The most problematic part of the implementation of the Act has been poor conviction rate (around 25%). The state machinery i.e. police and judicial administration must improve their investigation and litigation aspects to ensure better conviction rates.
• In case on misuse, a law balancing both the aspects i.e. addressing the atrocities and preventing innocents from misuse must be drafted after consultation with the stakeholders.