Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has said that merely using abusive language against a member of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes cannot be an offence under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the law could be invoked only when the allegation is of abusing “by the caste name” and that too within public view.Explaining Section Sec 3(1)(s) of SC/ST Act, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Alok Aradhe said for an offence to be made out under the act, merely abusing a member of a SC/ST would not be enough and at the same time, saying caste name would also not constitute an offence.“…The allegations must reveal that abuses were laced with caste name, or the caste name had been hurled as an abuse. What appears from the aforesaid is the element of humiliation is present in Section 3(1)(s) as well. It has to be gathered from the intentional insult towards the caste, and the content.”
