NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on Tuesday on a review petition filed by the Centre against its judgement diluting various stringent provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
A three-judge Bench of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Vineet Saran and Justice S Ravindra Bhat will pass the judgement after centre asked the top court to rethink its verdict.
The court reserved its order on the review petition on September 18.
A two-judge bench had earlier this month referred the review plea to a three-judge bench for hearing the case.
The Centre had filed the review petition asking it to rethink its verdict after a backlash from the SC/ST community against the decision, which resulted in widespread protests across the country.
A two-judge bench had on March 20, 2018, passed a slew of directions, including that a public servant could be arrested in cases lodged under the SC/ST Act "only after prior approval by the competent authority".
The apex court had held that there will be no automatic arrest on a complaint filed under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. It also introduced the anticipatory bail provision and a preliminary probe by the police before the arrest of the accused.
The Centre had filed the petition in the court and later made amendments in the Act to overcome the top court's order. The implementation of the amendment in the law was not stayed by the court.
The court is seized of a bunch of other petitions opposing amendments to the Act passed by the Parliament that rule out any provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities against SC/STs. The pleas alleged that Parliament had "arbitrarily" amended the law.
The amendments provide that no preliminary inquiry would be required for registering a criminal case and an arrest under this law would not be subject to any approval.