Mere reference to caste status insufficient to attract SC/ST Act: Allahabad HC

New Delhi: The Allahabad High Court has quashed a criminal case, including charges under the SC/ST Act, arising from alleged irregularities in land allotments made more than two decades ago and related revenue proceedings.

Allowing a criminal appeal, a single-judge Bench of Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav observed that a mere reference to Scheduled Caste land or the caste status of the informant is insufficient to attract the provisions of the special law.

Justice Yadav held that the case was “predominantly civil and revenue in nature” and that the prosecution amounted to an abuse of the process of law.

In its order, the Allahabad High Court set aside the cognisance and summoning order dated March 20, 2023, the charge sheet, and all proceedings arising from a 2022 FIR registered at Dadri police station in Gautam Buddha Nagar, under Section 3(1)(f) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, along with multiple IPC offences.

It held that neither the FIR nor the charge sheet disclosed that the alleged acts were committed “on the ground that the victim belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe”, which is a mandatory statutory requirement for invoking the SC/ST Act.

“Mere reference to Scheduled Caste land or status of the informant is insufficient to attract the provisions of the Act,” Justice Yadav observed, relying on the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

The Allahabad High Court also observed that the FIR, lodged in 2022 after an unexplained delay of more than two decades, did not attribute any specific role, overt act, or individual transaction to the appellant.

“None of the witnesses have stated that any act was committed by the accused on the ground that the pattadar belonged to a Scheduled Caste, which is a sine qua non for invocation of the SC/ST Act,” it said.

The order also flagged serious irregularities in the investigation, including the inclusion of deceased persons as prosecution witnesses, observing that such lapses reflected non-application of mind and rendered the investigation legally unsustainable.

The Allahabad High Court added that the summoning order had been passed in a “routine and mechanical manner”, without recording satisfaction about the existence of prima facie material.

Taking note that similarly placed co-accused had already been granted relief, and that no distinguishing circumstance was shown against the appellant, Justice Yadav concluded that continuation of the criminal proceedings would amount to an abuse of the process of law.

“In the considered opinion of this court, invocation of the SC/ST Act in the present case is wholly unsustainable, and continuation of the proceedings would result in miscarriage of justice,” the Allahabad High Court held, quashing the criminal case in its entirety.

IANS