Important Judgment of the Supreme Court of India

In this column, a brief report on an important judgment of the Supreme Court of India will be given, which has a bearing on human rights.
On the 20th March, 2018 the Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment on the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in the Criminal Appeal No.416 of 2018 of Dr. Subhash Kashinath Mahajan vs. The State of Maharashtra and ANR. that there is no absolute bar against grant of anticipatory bail in cases under the Atrocities Act if no prima facie case is made out or where on judicial scrutiny the complaint is found to be prima facie mala fide. In view of acknowledged abuse of law of arrest in cases under the Atrocities Act, arrest of a public servant can only be after approval of the appointing authority and of a non-public servant after approval by the S.S.P., which may be granted in appropriate cases, if considered necessary for reasons recorded. Such reasons must be scrutinized by the Magistrate for permitting further detention. The court further directed that in order to avoid false implication of an innocent, a preliminary enquiry may be conducted by the DSP concerned to find out whether the allegations make out a case under the Atrocities Act and that the allegations are not frivolous or motivated. Any violation of these directions will be actionable by way of disciplinary action as well as contempt.
The 89 page judgment was delivered by two judge bench of Mr. Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Mr. Justice Uday Umesh Lalit. The Court gave this judgment in the light of the Special Leave Petition filed by Dr Subhash Kashinath Mahajan against the Bombay High Court judgment refusing to quash the FIR lodged against him under this Act.
The court examined whether the said procedure will be just and fair under Article 21 of the Constitution of India or there can be procedural safeguards so that provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 are not abused for extraneous considerations.