LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court recently set aside criminal proceedings against the owner of a school under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, observing that a person can be subjected to trial under Section 3(1)(s) of the Act only if the utterances are made at a “place within a public view”.
Passing the order on an educationist’s plea challenging criminal proceedings against him for allegedly hurling casteist abuse at a student’s father, Justice Shamim Ahmed observed: “The verbal abuse by utterance of caste name of a member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe would not be an offence under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 if such incident takes place within a house where no outsider is present.”
Passing the order on an educationist’s plea challenging criminal proceedings against him for allegedly hurling casteist abuse at a student’s father, Justice Shamim Ahmed observed: “The verbal abuse by utterance of caste name of a member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe would not be an offence under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 if such incident takes place within a house where no outsider is present.”
Live-in relations are ‘more about infatuation’ without any sincerity: Allahabad HC
The HC made the observations while quashing a case against a school owner who was accused by a parent of failing his son in Class 12 examination.The complainant alleged the accused and his associates offered Rs 5 lakh to him to withdraw the protest. He claimed the accused also abused him by uttering the name of his caste.
The bench, however, said the accused had not abused the complainant in public view and noted the complainant had not stated anything about the nature of the abuse.