Supreme Court on Friday delivered a crucial verdict in a case related to SC/ST community. The apex court said that insulting or humiliating a person, without indicating his caste, tribe or concept of untouchability, would not be an offence under the stringent provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra gave this verdict while granting interim bail to Shajan Skaria, editor of an online Malayalam news channel. Shajan Sakaria was booked under the SC/ST Act for calling CPM MLA P V Sreenijan, who belongs to the SC/ST community, a ‘mafia don’. He was also denied pre-arrest bail by the trial court and the Kerala High Court.
Also Read : Mayawati BSP supports Bharat Band, BJP-Congress anti-reservation conspiracy
Supreme Court accepted the arguments of senior advocates Siddharth Luthra and Gaurav Agrawal, appearing for the editor, and said that not every deliberate insult or intimidation of a member of the SC/ST community would create a feeling of caste-based insult.
The bench said that in our view, there is nothing even prima facie to indicate that the appellant (Skaria), by publishing the video on YouTube, promoted or attempted to promote feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will against members of the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. The video has nothing to do with members of SC or ST in general. His target was only the complainant (Sreenijan) alone.
