New Delhi: Amid widespread protests across the country over the Supreme Court order on dilution of the SC/ST Atrocities Act, the ruling BJP on Wednesday said that in the last five years, 2014 and 2016 recorded the maximum number of atrocities against SC/ST in the country.
Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day, Minister of state (Home Affairs) Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said that during 2014, the number of cases registered as crimes against Scheduled Castes was 40,300. The number fell to 38,564 in 2015 which further rose to 40,774 in 2016. As far as crimes against Scheduled Tribes went, Ahir said in 2014, 6768 cases were registered which fell to 6275 in 2015. It further rose to 6564 in 2016.
Ahir also said the conviction rate in 2014, when it came to crimes against Scheduled Castes, was 28.4%, which dipped to 27.2% in 2015 and 25.8% in 2016. For crimes against Scheduled Tribes, the conviction rate was 30.9% in 2014, 19.8% in 2015 and 20.8% in 2016.
Before 2014, crimes against Scheduled Castes stood at 33,593 in 2012 and 39,346 in 2013. During the same years, crimes against Schedule Tribes were 5920 and 6768 respectively. The statement comes a day after at least nine people were killed in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh on Monday while thousands were detained by the police and hundreds were left injured as the state and central governments struggled to control the massive protests that erupted across the north, west and east India over the Supreme Court’s alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said that the petition will be heard in due course of time.
The court had on March 20 said that on "several occasions", 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 Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The top court had said that unless the exclusion of anticipatory bail is limited to "genuine cases and inapplicable to cases where there is no prima facie case was made out, there will be no protection available to innocent citizens.”
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