Gross misuse of SC/ST Act: SC grants bail to lawyer booked for casteist slurs
The SC had granted lawyer Virendra Singh anticipatory bail in July 2024 noting that “prima facie, we find that no specific role is attributed to the present petitioner in the FIR and there is also a previous litigation pending between the parties”.
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As per the National Judicial Data Grid, over 50 million cases are currently pending across various levels of the judiciary. Calling it a case of “gross misuse” of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, the Supreme Court Tuesday granted bail to a Jharkhand lawyer who was accused by his woman client of hurling casteist slurs.
“This is gross misuse of the SC/ST Act,” CJI B R Gavai said, presiding over a two-judge bench also comprising Justice A G Masih.
The SC had granted lawyer Virendra Singh anticipatory bail in July 2024 noting that “prima facie, we find that no specific role is attributed to the present petitioner in the FIR and there is also a previous litigation pending between the parties”.
On Tuesday, the counsel for the complainant woman opposed Singh’s appeal challenging the Jharkhand HC’s December 13, 2023 order dismissing his anticipatory bail plea and sought more time to file a counter affidavit.
But the SC bench said that on April 17 this year the state was already given the last opportunity of four weeks to file its counter affidavit. The bench also noted that Singh had joined the investigation.
“… Taking into consideration the fact that pursuant to the interim orders passed by this Court dated 12.07.2024, the petitioner has joined the investigation and cooperated with the investigating agency, we are inclined to make the order dated 12.07.2024 passed by this Court absolute.”
Appearing for Singh, Advocate Chayan Sarkar argued that the case is nothing but a fallout between the lawyer and her client, and the fact that the complainant has also filed two more FIRs also shows this is vendetta.
He contended that the woman had lodged a case against Singh and his son when the advocate asked her to pay his fees. Later, Singh was also booked under the SC/ST Act on allegations that he and some other lawyers hurled casteist slurs on the woman and assaulted her on the premises of a Jamshedpur court in February 2022.
The woman’s counsel had submitted before the HC that the incident had occurred in full public glare and would therefore constitute an offence under the Act. Dismissing his plea for anticipatory bail, the HC had said, “it is seen that in the FIR also the presence of the appellant is made out and that the appellant was working in tandem with other accused persons…”
Sarkar said that the HC delved into the statements of the complainant and other witnesses, which were nothing but reiteration of the contents of the FIR, but failed to consider that there were no direct allegations against the petitioner. The allegations were principally against some elected members of the district bar association of Jamshedpur.
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