The Madhya Pradesh High Court Justice Subodh Abhyankar in the case titled Alkesh and others v. State of M.P. dated 14-09-2021 opined that the Caste of the Complainant is of Paramount Importance & is 'Sine Qua Non' in a case under SC/ST Act.
Facts of the Case:
A dispute took place between the complainant and the appellants. The FIR was lodged and the case under 294, 323, 506 and 34 of the IPC was registered, however, on the basis of the statement recorded by the witness after more than one month, section 3(2) (5A) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 were also added in the charge sheet.
Submission of the Appellant:
Appellants have submitted that they have been falsely implicated under the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 by the complainant party which is apparently an afterthought as in the FIR, there is not a whisper regarding the involvement of the caste of the complainant.
Court’s observation and Judgment:
After listening submission of both the parties, the High Court opined that there are certain basic requirements while lodging an FIR on the perusal of which one must be able to find out about the substance of the offence, and the caste of the complainant is something which cannot be missed by him while lodging the same, especially when the caste itself was an important aspect of the matter. The caste of the complainant is of paramount importance and is a sine qua non in a case under the SC/ST Act and it cannot be assumed that the complainant would forget to mention in the FIR that the assailants also made aspersions against his caste. It is also apparent from the charge sheet that the caste of the complainant surfaced for the first time on 10/05/2016 i.e. after 28 days delay of the incident in the supplementary statement In such circumstances, the High Court held that the allegation regarding aspersions on the caste of the complainant was an afterthought.
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