Dead-end Khairlanji

At the Inter-State Council meeting, the PM highlighted an old injustice that still shames the nation. When will laws dealing with crimes against dalits be given teeth?

At the inter-state council meeting on December 9, the prime minister gave out some prescriptions to chief ministers to address the problem of continuing atrocities on Scheduled Castes. He urged them to register cases under the 8220;stronger provisions of the Prevention of Atrocities Act8221; and not under the weaker provisions of the Indian Penal Code; create 8220;special cells to be preferably manned by senior officers from the SC/ST community to monitor and enforce8230; that Act8221; and show 8220;compassion for the victims8221;, a 8220;firm resolve to deal with the perpetrators8221;; and the 8220;political will to enforce the law and ensure easy access to the police and the justice system for the vulnerable sections8221; because 8220;legislation alone8221; is not 8220;sufficient in dealing with social violence8221;. The 8220;continuing atrocities against the weaker sections are a national disgrace8221;, the prime minister said.

The question is: how can this noble sentiment at the highest level be translated into specific and effective action? Perhaps this is the apt moment to search for the answer, while Khairlanji is still fresh in our memory. The government could begin by rectifying the obvious weaknesses in the Prevention of Atrocities Act.

The gravest weakness is the provision in Section 14 to 8220;specify for each district a court of session to be a special court to try the offences under this Act8221;. Mere specification or designation of a court of session as a special court is meaningless and will not serve the stated purpose of 8220;speedy trial8221;. This is why atrocity trials drag on for years, mostly petering out in acquittals. The latest example is the acquittal of all 32 accused in a gruesome case of the burning of eight dalits to death in Kambalapalli village in Kolar district of Karnataka in March 2000.

This Section needs amendments to provide for the establishment in each district of a special court of session exclusively to try only atrocities under this Act; supported by an exclusive special investigating officer and exclusive special public prosecutor under Section 15 for the speedy investigation and effective prosecution of atrocity cases alone.

It is common practice to nullify good provisions by the simple expedient of not selecting the right individuals. In line with Dr. Ambedkar8217;s warning in his Constituent Assembly address of November 4, 1948, a specific new Section 15 A should inter-alia prescribe the appointment of these judges, as well as special investigating officers and special public prosecutors from panels prepared on the basis of their record of and reputation for upholding SC and ST rights.

The Act was a pioneer in terming and defining certain offences of real experience along with importing applicable IPC offences. But to fill in the gaps, it is necessary to insert as atrocities the offences of social and economic boycott, occupation of cultivable government land by ineligible non-SCT persons, non-payment of statutory wages and giving toxic substances as wages in kind to SC and ST agricultural labourers, and preventing elections to SC or ST-reserved posts and interfering with the normal functioning of SC and ST presidents of panchayats and other local bodies.

There is one exception to the PM8217;s otherwise correct characterisation of the provisions of the POA Act as being stronger than those of IPC. The IPC provides for the death sentence for murder, but there is no provision for the death sentence in the POA Act. Thereby, an SC or ST murder convict can be sentenced to death under the IPC; but a non-SC/non-ST convicted of murder of a SC or ST person cannot be sentenced to death under POA Act. We are thus back to Manusmriti, which provides different punishments for the same offence depending on the caste status of the offender and victim. Clause v of sub-section 2 of Section 3 should be amended to provide for the death sentence for murder instead of only life imprisonment.

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Space prevents me from detailing other essential amendments, like the extension of protection of the Act to SC converts to religions which make them non-SC; extension to SCs of benefits of preventive externment of likely offenders under Section 10; strengthening of Section 8 by extending presumption of common intention/common object /conspiracy to mass murders, rapes and arson and also mens rea wherever provided in Act and to cases where mobs perpetrate atrocities, as in Khairlanji.

I have made these suggestions during the consultation stages in 1988 and through the Dalit Manifesto I authored in 1996 and in subsequent documents to successive governments at the Centre and different national parties and have drafted amendments in legal terminology. The government must now finalise these amendments. Else, Khairlanjis will continue to visit us with sickening regularity and invite anarchic forces to step into the vacuum.

The writer is advisor to the Union HRD ministry. Views are personal