MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to file a comprehensive district-wise statistical report on the number of cases registered under the SC/ST Act in the last five years, their status, disposal and filing of appeals in cases that ended in acquittal, among others.
A bench of justices P Velmurugan and K K Ramakrishnan gave the direction on a PIL petition filed by a human rights activist, A Vincent Raj of Madurai. The petitioner sought directions to the state to take action to file appeals against the acquittal of accused persons in SC/ST Act cases.
Raj said that according to an RTI report he had obtained, out of the 11,117 cases booked under the Act across the state between 2015 and 2025, conviction was secured in only 3% of the cases. Of the 3,611 cases in which the accused persons were acquitted, the government filed appeals in only 13 cases, he added.
“The disparity between the number of acquittals and the number of appeals warrants an examination whether the judgments of acquittal are being systematically forwarded to the competent prosecution authorities, legally reviewed within the prescribed period and considered for appeal wherever sufficient grounds exist,” Raj said.
Such review must be completed within a reasonable time so that the statutory limitation period is not allowed to expire through administrative delay or failure to take a timely decision, he added.
Last month, he sent a representation requesting authorities to establish a monitoring mechanism for SC/ST Act cases and ensure that judgments of acquittal are reviewed in time for filing appeals if required. But no action was taken, he said.
The judges told the director general of police and ADGP (Social Justice and Human Rights) to collect district-wise data and file a report on or before November 24, and posted the case on November 25.
ED reply sought in FEMA case linked to DMK MP
Chennai: The Madras High Court’s first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan issued a notice to the respondents, including the Enforcement Directorate, on the appeals filed by S Jagathrakshagan, DMK MP, and his son J Sundeep Anand and daughter J Sri Nisha.
They had challenged a May 2026 order of the appellate tribunal of the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976, regarding the seizure of properties worth a total of `45.34 crore in connection with a violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) over huge overseas investments in a Singapore-based company.ENS