Some provisions of Prevention of Atrocities Act discriminatory: Judge

Drawing upon a couple of instances in the Mirchpur caste violence trial in which the Judge was constrained by two sub-sections of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, to sentence three convicted Jat men to life imprisonment offering no judicial discretion for a lighter sentence, and the neglect of duties by a Dalit naib tehsildar of Mirchpur village who could not be prosecuted under the Act as he was a Dalit, Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau on Monday made some critical observations on the Act that was framed by Parliament taking into account discrimination/oppression based on caste and the harsh realities of social life of the Dalits and Adivasis in the country.

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