SC/ST Atrocities Case: HC grants Pre Arrest Bail to the Accused [Read Order]

Bombay high court, in the case of Yamunabai Vs. The state of Maharashtra and another, granted anticipatory bail to the accused with respect to charges under the SC/ST(prevention of atrocities) act and other charges under IPC filed against the applicant after a similar bail application was rejected by the additional sessions judge.

FACTS

The issue started as a quarrel between the appellant and the informant’s daughter which further got worse and resulted in verbal abuses and alleged assault on the informant and his family. Since the informant and his family belonged to the schedule cast , it attracted sections from the atrocities act as well.

 APPLICANT’S CONTENTION

The applicant’s counsel argued that there were no recitals of any abuses in the name of caste and the incident was caused due to some dispute between small children and not in any relation to the caste of the informants. Further, the counsel contended that charges under sections of IPC that were leveled against the applicant were bailable and physical custody of the appellant was not required for the investigation.

RESPONDENT AGAINST BAIL

 The respondent strongly opposed the bail application on the ground that since the applicant and informant were neighbors the applicants had knowledge of the informant’s caste and although abuses were not made in the name of caste the prima facie that the informants were assaulted was enough to make out grounds for section 3(2) of the atrocities act.

COURT’S ORDER

Justice Vibha Kankanwadi relying upon Masumsha Hasanasha Musalman Vs. The state of Maharashtra found out that according to the statute and above-mentioned precedent, to make out an offense under section 3(2) of the atrocities act, the offense committed against such person must be based on him belonging to a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe. Since in the present case the dispute was caused by a quarrel between the children and there were no abuses recited in the name of caste, the court observed that there was no bar against pre-arrest bail under the atrocities act. Thus setting aside the order of the additional sessions judge, the court granted anticipatory bail to the applicant.

Read Order @Latestlaws.com