SC to hear review plea on atrocities law verdict on May 3

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear the Centre's plea seeking review of its judgement “diluting” provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on May 3.

Attorney General K K Venugopal sought an early hearing before a bench of Justices A K Goel and Deepak Gupta. He submitted that the Centre had already filed a written submission in the matter.

“The last line of your last order says that list the matter after written submission is filed. I have filed my written submission. Four states have also filed review petitions. Please give us a date,” Venugopal told the bench.

Justice Goel said the matter would be listed for hearing in the next week and posted it for arguments on May 3.

In its submission on April 12, the Union government has asked the court to recall the March 20 judgement, saying it has resulted in “great damage” to the country.

The Centre had moved the apex court on April 2 seeking review of its judgement by which safeguards were put on the provisions for immediate arrest under the SC/ST Act.

It claimed the judgement delivered on March 20 “dealing with an issue of very sensitive nature caused a lot of commotion, anger, unease and a sense of disharmony”.

The court had said in its verdict that several times, innocent citizens were being termed as accused and public servants deterred from performing their duties, which was never the intention of the legislature while enacting the SC/ST Act.