The Bombay High Court held in the case of Sanjay Krushna Katkar v The State of Maharashtra that the scope of Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes under the prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 cannot be restricted to that of the state. A person belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled tribe is under the protection of the above-mentioned Act in any part of India, even in the part in which he is not recognized as Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.
The case involved two questions of law which were formulated by Justice Sarang V. Kotwal for the bench to address. The question of law involved territorial limits of protection under the Atrocities Act as well the composition of the bench for deciding appeals and bail applications under the Act.
The court recognized that the act was constructed to protect the community from the atrocities which are not confined to boundaries and the intention of Parliament was not only to introduce the laws but also to achieve larger goal of preventing atrocities. The bench also took notice of the fact that a lexical, strict or narrow interpretation of law would defeat the purpose of it. The essence of the legislation is to protect the communities from physical and mental harm inflicted on them because of their ascribed status and the change of region does not provide them immunity from such acts. Thus, the bench decided to provide immunity to Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes under the prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 throughout India, irrespective of recognition as Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe in that part of the country.
The bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere, Justice Bharati Dangre, and Justice NJ Jamadar deliberated on the existing dichotomy in the composition of bench as the Bombay High Court Appellate Side Rules, 1960 prescribe the jurisdiction of Single Judges and Benches of the High Court and Rule 1 in Chapter I specifically provides that the criminal and civil jurisdiction of the Court shall, except in cases where it is otherwise provided. The bench held that the bench also looked into the matter of the composition of bench and came to conclusion that all appeals under Section 14(A-2) of Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes ( Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989, would lie before the Single Judge of High Court
Written by Srishti Gaur of National Law University, Delhi (1st Semester), an intern at Legal Vidhiya
