The Aggravated Offences in Section 3(2)

The clause that turns any grave offence into an atrocity punishable with life, the schedule inserted in 2016, and the two clauses that catch the person who covers it up.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 3(2) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 punishes a person not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe who gives or fabricates false evidence intending to cause such a member to be convicted of a capital offence, with imprisonment for life and fine, and with death if an innocent member is convicted and executed in consequence; who gives or fabricates false evidence to cause conviction of a non-capital offence punishable with seven years or upwards, with six months to seven years or upwards and fine; who commits mischief by fire or explosive substance damaging property belonging to such a member, with six months to seven years and fine, and destroying a building ordinarily used as a place of worship, a human dwelling or for the custody of property of such a member, with imprisonment for life and fine.

Section 3(2)(v) punishes committing any offence under the Penal Code punishable with ten years or more against a person or property, knowing that such person is a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe or that the property belongs to one, with imprisonment for life and fine. Section 3(2)(va) punishes committing any offence specified in the Schedule, knowing the same, with the punishment specified in the Penal Code for that offence and fine. Section 3(2)(vi) punishes causing evidence of an offence under the Chapter to disappear with intent to screen the offender, or giving information he knows to be false with that intent, with the punishment provided for that offence. Section 3(2)(vii) punishes a public servant who commits any offence under the section with not less than one year and up to the punishment provided for that offence.

The architecture

Section 3(1) is a list of acts that are offences only because of who the victim is. Section 3(2) does something different: it takes offences that already exist in the general law and raises them because of who the victim is. There are three mechanisms and they should not be confused.

Mechanism one: a stated offence with a stated punishment. Clauses (i) to (iv). False evidence and mischief by fire, each described in the clause and each carrying its own sentence.

Mechanism two: the general uplift, clause (v). Any Penal Code offence carrying ten years or more, committed knowing the victim's status, becomes punishable with imprisonment for life. This is the most important provision in the Act. Murder, rape, grievous hurt by dangerous weapons and kidnapping all carry ten years or more, so in practice clause (v) is how a serious caste crime is charged.