SC asks states/UTs to decide on plea seeking to conduct yatras on poll awareness
The bench was told that such orders prohibit all kinds of assemblies, meetings and demonstrations during the duration of elections.
The Chief Justice of India has agreed to set up the original bench which passed the SC/ST verdict to hear Centre’s review petition.
Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed for an open court hearing on Centre’s review petition over judgment on the SC/ST Act. The review plea will be heard in the afternoon on Tuesday.
The Chief Justice of India has agreed to set up the original bench which passed the SC/ST verdict to hear Centre’s review petition.
On Monday, as Dalit groups had launched massive protests in different parts of the country, the Central government had filed a review petition in the apex courts against its recent order, diluting certain provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
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Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad confirmed that the Centre has filed the petition after instructing his Ministry officials “to examine the desirability of filing a review petition in the case.”
According to media reports, the government was under severe pressure from its allies and the opposition to file the review petition.
On March 28, a delegation of Dalit ministers and MPs led by Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed issues arising out of the Supreme Court’s order.
On the same day, leaders of several opposition parties met President Ram Nath Kovind and sought his intervention to press the government to file a review petition before the Supreme Court over its verdict diluting the SC/ST Act.
The delegation included leaders from the Congress, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party, the DMK and the Nationalist Congress Party.
On March 20, the Supreme Court ruled that the arrest of an accused under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is not mandatory and recourse to coercive action would be only after preliminary inquiry and sanction by the competent authority.
Coupled with this, the court said, that there was 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”.
(With inputs from agencies)
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