Sc & st atrocities act

Balu (Querist) 25 September 2016 This query is : Resolved
Sir/Madam,
Is there any time frame to lodge a complaint under SC and ST Atrocities Act.Whether complaint can be booked after 3 years of incidence.

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Raj Kumar Makkad (Expert) 25 September 2016
It should be got lodged at the earliest otherwise it shall lose its significance and the entire benefit of such lapse shall go in favour of accused.

BUT why are you asking this query?

Guest (Expert) 25 September 2016
Purely academic query with no background of the case.

Balu (Querist) 25 September 2016
Makkad Sir,
Thank you very much for your reply. One of my friends is being blackmailed by his neighbour stating that he will make a complaint under SC and ST Atrocities Act against him alleging that my friend has slapped one SC woman about 3 years ago.One of the lawyers we consulted informed that the case can be booked under this act even after lapse of 7 years. Please clarify once.

Raj Kumar Makkad (Expert) 25 September 2016
I completely differ with the advice of that lawyer. In every case even, the allegation of atrocity cannot be proved. Go through the The relevant provisions of Act:

The term 'atrocity' was not defined until this Act was passed by the Parliament in 1989. In legal parlance, the Act understands the term to mean an offence punishable under sections 3(1) and 3(2).

In specific terms:

Atrocity is “an expression commonly used to refer to crimes against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in India”.

It “denotes the quality of being shockingly cruel and inhumane, whereas the term 'crime' relates to an act punishable by law”.

It implies “any offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) committed against SCs by non-SC persons, or against STs by non-ST persons. Caste consideration as a motive is not necessary to make such an offence in case of atrocity”.

It signifies “crimes which have ingredients of infliction of suffering in one form or the other that should be included for reporting”. This is based on the assumption that “where the victims of crime are members of Scheduled Castes and the offenders do not belong to Scheduled Castes caste considerations are really the root cause of the crime, even though caste considerations may not be the vivid and minimum motive for the crime”.

The Act lists 22 offences relating to various patterns of behaviours inflicting criminal offences for shattering the self-respect and esteem of SCs and STs, denial of economic, democratic and social rights, discrimination, exploitation and abuse of the legal process, etc.

Section 3 of the Act lists the criminal offences and the punishments.