Supreme Court upholds constitutional validity of SC/ST Amendment Act

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 10) upheld the constitutional validity of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018, and said a court can grant anticipatory bail and quash the FIR only in cases where a prima facie case is not made out. It also said that liberal use of anticipatory bail will defeat the intention of Parliament.

While hearing the petition, the three-judge bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra said a preliminary inquiry is not essential before lodging an FIR under the act and the approval of senior police officials is not needed.

Also read: Centre seeks review on SC/ST creamy layer exclusion from quota

The bench that included justices Vineet Saran and Ravinda Bhat also said that every citizen needs to treat fellow citizens equally and foster the concept of fraternity.

The top courts verdict came on a batch of PILs challenging the validity of the SC/ST Amendment Act of 2018, which was brought to nullify the effect of the apex courts 2018 ruling, which had diluted the provisions of the stringent Act.

Also read: SC revokes its 2018 verdict which diluted provisions of arrest under SC/ST Act

Will never allow reservations to be removed: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said it was in the DNA of the RSS and the BJP to try and erase reservations, and that they would never allow that to happen, after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the SC/ST Amendment Act.

“It is in the DNA of RSS and BJP to try and erase reservation… We’ll never allow reservations to be done away with no matter how much (Narendra) Modi Ji or Mohan Bhagwat dream of it,” Gandhi said, taking a swipe at the prime minister and the RSS chief.