The Supreme Court on Wednesday doubted the Centre's claim that it serves the interests of the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities and pointed out how persons belonging to these communities were still engaged in menial jobs such as cleaning drains, septic tanks and manual scavenging. The court added that they are left to die in "gas chambers" with virtually no basic equipments such as masks, oxygen cylinders provided to them.

Pointing a finger at the double-standards applied to SC/ST in the country, the bench panned the Centre for failing in their constitutional duty towards the communities as several of them are left to die in such "inhuman" conditions. The bench said that such things do not happen in any other country and it was unfortunate that the tag of untouchability still remains despite India being independent for 72 years.

The court made these observations during a review petition filed by the Centre challenging a March 20, 2018 decision of the apex court. By this decision, the court had introduced a two-tier vetting of complaints in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, by which arrest of a person required prior permission of a senior level police officer or the appointing authority in case of a public servant. The judgment also introduced anticipatory bail, which was not provided to accused arrested under the previous Act.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, who appeared for Centre, told the three-judge bench that SCs/STs are being treated like "animals" over the past two centuries and although untouchability as a concept is abhorred by the Constitution, the practice is prevalent in society and hence the apex court judgment ought to be reversed.

The bench said, "What you are doing to them is most inhuman and you are making these provisions of law more rigorous than the general law." It also reserved orders on the review petition.

COURT ATTACKS CENTRE

Pointed out how persons belonging to these communities were still engaged in menial jobs such as cleaning drains, septic tanks and manual scavenging, and then left to die in “gas chambers”