New Delhi, April 24, 2013:
A person facing charges under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
cannot be granted anticipatory bail until it was proved that no case was
made out against him and the allegations were false, the Supreme Court has held.
A bench of justices A K Patnaik and S J Mukhopadhaya explained the
legal position while setting aside an order of anticipatory bail granted
to Baljinder Singh by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The
court said a case for anticipatory bail could arise for a person,
accused of an offence under the Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe Act,
only if charges under the special law were quashed.
The bench
referred to its earlier verdict in the “Vilas Pandurang Pawar and Anr Vs
state of Maharashtra and Ors” in 2012, stating that Section 18 of the
Act created “a specific bar to the grant of anticipatory bail to a
person against whom any offence is registered under the provisions of
the Act and, therefore no court shall entertain an application for
anticipatory bail unless it, prima facie, finds that an offence under
the Act is not made out.”
“We find that Section 18 of the
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
1984, provides that nothing in Section 438 (provisions relating to
anticipatory bail) of the Criminal Procedure Code shall apply in
relation to any case involving the arrest of any person on an accusation
of having committed an offence under this Act,” the bench said.
Without going into the merit of the case, the court overturned the high
court order passed on January 31, 2012, allowing the relief of
anticipatory bail.
The case against Singh was lodged at the
Model Town police station in Panipat by a woman on July 30, 2010, for
making caste abuses, besides various offences including criminal
intimidation and outraging modesty of the woman.
— in New Delhi.
