Time Has Now Come to Repeal the SC/ST Act : For over three decades, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, commonly known as the SC/ST Act, has operated as one of the most draconian and misused criminal laws in independent India. Enacted with the stated objective of preventing atrocities, it has in practice become infamous as a weapon for filing false cases, settling personal scores, and extorting money. The time has now come for Parliament to show courage and repeal this law in its entirety.
The most damning indictment of this Act comes not from its critics, but from the Government of India itself. In 2021, the Government informed Parliament that the conviction rate under the SC/ST Act was a shocking 0.67%. Let that figure sink in. Out of every 10,000 cases registered, only 67 result in conviction. This is not a minor statistical anomaly. It is conclusive proof that over 99% of cases filed under this Act fail to stand judicial scrutiny. No genuine criminal law in any civilized democracy can survive with a 99.33% failure rate. Such a figure does not indicate poor investigation; it indicates mass fabrication of cases.
Why is the rate of false cases so astronomically high? The answer lies in the structural deficiencies deliberately built into the law.
First, the Act reverses the fundamental principle of criminal jurisprudence: innocent until proven guilty. Under Section 18, anticipatory bail is explicitly barred. A person merely named in a complaint can be arrested immediately without any preliminary inquiry. The Supreme Court itself, in Subhash Kashinath Mahajan v. State of Maharashtra (2018), recognized this gross abuse and attempted to introduce safeguards like preliminary enquiry before arrest. What happened next exposed the political capture of this law: Parliament, under pressure, passed an amendment to nullify the Supreme Court’s judgment and restore the draconian provisions. Justice was sacrificed for vote-bank politics.
Second, the Act creates a powerful financial incentive for filing fake cases. Various state governments provide immediate monetary compensation to the complainant upon mere registration of an FIR, ranging from Rs. 85,000 to over Rs. 8,25,000 depending on the alleged offence, with no requirement to return the money if the case is later proved false. This has spawned an entire industry of blackmail. Countless reports from across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh show a clear pattern: file a false SC/ST case, demand lakhs to withdraw it, and pocket the government compensation regardless of outcome. The law has been reduced to a tool of legalized extortion.
Third, the definition of offences under the Act is deliberately vague and overbroad. Terms like “humiliation,” “intimidation,” and “insult” under Section 3 are entirely subjective. A routine workplace dispute, a property disagreement between neighbours, a loan recovery, or even a heated argument can be twisted into an “atrocity” if the complainant happens to belong to a scheduled caste or tribe. The police, terrified of being accused of negligence under Section 4 of the Act which punishes public servants for failure to act, register FIRs mechanically without any verification. The accused, often from general or OBC communities, has no effective remedy.
Fourth, the law destroys social harmony instead of protecting it. By creating a separate, unequal system of justice based solely on caste identity, it violates Article 14 and Article 15 of the Constitution which guarantee equality before law. Two citizens involved in the same quarrel are treated by entirely different legal standards. One gets immediate arrest without bail, the other gets compensation without proof. This institutionalized inequality breeds resentment, divides villages and workplaces on caste lines, and makes genuine social integration impossible. Far from ending casteism, the Act perpetuates and weaponizes caste identity.
Fifth, the human cost of fake cases is devastating and irreversible. An innocent teacher, doctor, farmer, or small businessman arrested under the SC/ST Act faces immediate social ostracism, loss of employment, and years of traumatic litigation. Even after acquittal, which takes on average 5 to 8 years, the stigma never fully disappears. There is no provision for meaningful punishment for filing a false complaint, and no compensation for the falsely accused. The law protects the false accuser at every stage and abandons the innocent victim.
Defenders of the status quo argue that misuse in some cases does not justify repeal. This argument collapses in the face of the 0.67% conviction rate. When misuse is not the exception but the overwhelming norm at 99.33%, the law itself is the problem. A law that produces injustice 99 times out of 100 cannot be reformed by minor tweaks; it must be repealed.
India already has a robust Indian Penal Code, now the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which punishes assault, murder, rape, intimidation, and humiliation for all citizens equally, irrespective of caste. There is no logical need for a parallel, caste-based criminal code that grants special privileges to some and denies basic due process to others. True social justice means equal protection of laws, not superior protection for one group through the persecution of another.
The continuation of the SC/ST Act is a blot on India’s claim to be a rule-of-law democracy. It violates natural justice, encourages perjury, burdens the judiciary with lakhs of false cases, and gives India international notoriety for legalized blackmail. Every year of delay ruins thousands more innocent families.
Parliament must act now. Repeal the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, unconditionally. Restore the principle of one law for all Indians. Restore the right to bail, the right to a fair preliminary inquiry, and the presumption of innocence. Only repeal can end this era of state-sponsored false prosecution and restore faith in Indian justice.
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