An offence under the SC-ST Act is not established merely on the fact that the complainant is a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe community unless there is an intention to humiliate, the Supreme Court said on Friday.A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra made the observation while granting anticipatory bail to YouTuber Shajan Skaria, who runs the “Marunadan Malayali” channel on the video-streaming platform.
Skaria had challenged the denial of anticipatory bail to him by the Kerala High Court in a criminal case lodged against him by MLA P V Sreenijin.
Sreenijin had got the FIR lodged for offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Skaria, alleging that he had intentionally humiliated the lawmaker by making false allegations through a video uploaded on “Marunadan Malayali”.
The court said the mere fact that the person subjected to insult or intimidation belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe would not attract the offence under section 3(1)(r) of the Act unless it was the intention of the accused to subject the person concerned to caste-based humiliation.
“Thus, the dictum as laid aforesaid is that the offence under section 3(1)(r) of the Act, 1989 is not established merely on the fact that the complainant is a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe unless there is an intention to humiliate such a member for the reason that he belongs to such a community.
“In other words, it is not the purport of the Act, 1989 that every act of intentional insult or intimidation meted by a person who is not a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe to a person who belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe would attract section 3(1)(r) of the Act, 1989 merely because it is committed against a person who happens to be a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe,” the bench said.