The Hindu : New Delhi News : Case against Mayawati Government

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Case against Mayawati Government

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Indian Justice Party president Udit Raj has filed public interest litigation in the Allahabad High Court against the Uttar Pradesh Government’s alleged dilution of the Scheduled Caste/Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Dr. Udit Raj said the PIL was filed on January 11 and the Allahabad High Court had issued notices to U.P. Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police. The Court has also issued notice to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. All three have been asked to file their replies by January 25.

The IJP president said Mayawati had acted against the interests of the Dalits to fulfil her ambition of becoming Prime Minister.

Citing two circulars of the UP Government -- one on May 20 and the other on October 29 last year -- Dr. Raj said the State Government had no legal authority to tamper with the 1989 Act as it was passed by the Centre.

It has been pointed out in the PIL that of the 22 identified offences against the SC/STs under the Act -- like land grab, making casteist remarks, teasing Dalit women -- the Mayawati Government had done away with 20 offences and asked the law enforcers in the State to register cases pertaining to these offences under the usual Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). “The SC/ST Act is to be invoked only in cases of rape and murder,” said Dr. Raj.

The IJP president said the circulars also asked the police to invoke Section 182 (giving false information) of the IPC against people from Dalit community if their complaints were not found to be genuine. “The situation has become such that the Dalits are being battered by the goons on the one hand and, on the other, also fear going to the police station,” he said.

According to Dr. Raj, it was the same Mayawati who had in 1999 threatened to withdraw support to the then Kalyan Singh Government in U.P. when he had passed a circular asking the station house officers of police stations to first satisfy themselves about the genuineness of a complaint from a Dalit before registering a case under the SC/ST Act.

The Dalit leader also questioned Ms. Mayawati’s intentions on diluting only the SC/ST Act.

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