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SC/ST Act: Govt mulls to file review plea in SC

The government is thinking of filing a review petition in the Supreme Court pertaining to the apex court’s order that…

SC/ST Act: Govt mulls to file review plea in SC

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (Photo: PIB/File)

The government is thinking of filing a review petition in the Supreme Court pertaining to the apex court’s order that dilutes some stringent provisions of the SC/ST Act, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here on Thursday.

“The government has taken note of the SC’s order in the SC/ST Act. I have already asked the Law Ministry to examine the desirability of filing a review petition,” Prasad said. According to a senior functionary the review will be filed by next Wednesday.

The law minister’s reaction came after a delegation of Dalit ministers and MPs led by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan met Prime Minister on Wednesday and discussed issues related to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

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Paswan and other delegation members said the government was “committed” to file a review petition against the dilution of some provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

In an order on 20 March, the Supreme Court said the arrest of an accused underthe Act was not mandatory and recourse to coercive action would be taken only after preliminary inquiry and sanction by the competent authority.

The court said there was no “absolute bar against grant of anticipatory bail in cases under the Act if no prima facie case is made out or the complaint is found to be prima facie mala fide.”

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