The 2015 Amendment

The amendment that added twenty-two offences, a schedule, a chapter of victims' rights, an appeal on facts, and one word that decides cases.

In one line: the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015, which is Act 1 of 2016 and came into force on 26 January 2016, is the largest change ever made to the 1989 Act, and a student needs to be able to say what it inserted and why.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: Act 1 of 2016 substituted the whole of section 3(1), adding new clauses; inserted section 3(2)(va) and the Schedule; substituted "knowing that such person is a member" for "on the ground that such person is a member" in section 3(2)(v); substituted section 4 to create a substantive offence of neglect of duty with a list of duties; substituted section 14 to require Exclusive Special Courts; inserted section 14A giving an appeal on facts and law and against the grant or refusal of bail; inserted Chapter IVA and section 15A on the rights of victims and witnesses; inserted the definitions of economic boycott and social boycott in section 2; and inserted section 8(c), a presumption of knowledge of caste identity where the accused had personal knowledge of the victim or his family.

Why an amendment was needed

The 1989 Act had been in force for twenty-six years and the same three complaints recurred.

The offences did not describe what was happening. The original section 3(1) had a shorter list, drawn from the practices of the 1980s. It did not name the boycott, the witchcraft allegation, the defacing of a statue, the sexual touching, the obstruction of a man riding a horse to his wedding, or the obstruction of an elected Panchayat member. Those are the clauses the amendment inserted, and the list of new clauses is a description of caste violence as it was reported between 1989 and 2015.

Cases were being charged out of the Act. A caste incident typically produces rioting, hurt, molestation, criminal trespass and criminal intimidation, and every one of those Penal Code offences carries less than ten years, so section 3(2)(v) did not reach them. The case was charged under the Penal Code alone, and the Special Court, the Special Public Prosecutor, the bar on anticipatory bail and the compensation machinery all fell away. The Schedule and section 3(2)(va) are the answer.

The prosecution had to prove motive. Section 3(2)(v) required the offence to have been committed on the ground that the person is a member of a Scheduled Caste. The amendment substituted knowing that such person is a member.