Supreme Court Had Asked The Centre Whether False Complaints Under This Law Should Be A Punishable Offence.

With many cases coming to light of people being falsely implicated under the stringent ‘no bail’ Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre whether false complaints under this law should be a punishable offence.
The Centre, through additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, informed a bench of Justices Adarsh Goel  and U U Lalit last week that the government had no intention of amending the law, enacted in 1989, to incorporate punishment for false complaints.

“Object of the Act is to prevent commission of offences of atrocities against members of SCs and STs and it would not be in consonance with the intent of the Act to provide for punishment for members of SCs and STs for falsely implicating a person,” Singh said.
This means someone from the SC/ST community can get away with a false complaint against a person even if a court of law finds the complaint to be frivolous. The only relief for government servants facing complaints under the SC/ST law, the Centre said, was under the IPC, which could be invoked by higher authorities to deny sanction for prosecution of an accused if they thought the complaint was utterly false.
Singh said, “The Centre remains fully committed to ensure proper, meaningful and effective implementation of the 1989 Act along with its amendment carried out in 2015 and is also duty bound to take all necessary steps from time to time.” After hearing him, the bench reserved it order.
However, the statistics placed on record by the Centre told an abysmal rate of conviction on complaints filed under the Act. In 2015, as many as 15-16% of cases were closed by police without prosecution. Moreover, of the cases that resulted in filing of chargesheet, the trial court either acquitted the accused or closed the case after compounding the offence.