SC dismisses PIL seeking CBI probe into incidents of violence during 'Bharat Bandh'

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking a CBI probe into incidents of violence during the April 2 'Bharat bandh' which was called

by some organisations in protest against dilution of the SC/ST Act.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul was hearing the plea which wanted the court to take politicians to task for organising the Bharat Bandh protest.

"We are inclined to take a view that this PIL does not require to be considered," the bench said.

Earlier, the apex court, on May 16, had sought response of the Centre on the PIL filed by social activist Bejon Kumar Misra through lawyer Shashank Sudhi on the issue.

 

The PIL had sought a direction to political parties, which supported the Bharat Bandh, to make good the damages caused to properties by protesters and restrain their MPs and MLAs from attending Parliament or Assembly till they compensated the damages.

The apex court had on March 20 virtually diluted the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act mandating immediate arrest under the law, which led to nationwide protest by various rights organisations across states including Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab and Bihar claiming eight lives.

Later, the government amended the law and restored statutory scheme prevailing before the judgement.

"Elected representative cannot indulge in violence as they are bound by the rules of law and if they are doing openly by way of statement or physical acts, they should be immediately restrained to hold the constitutional post," the plea said.

The petition had also sought issuing of guidelines to politicians when it comes to "criticism of judiciary or loaded topics of public importance".

The petition alleged that political leaders had participated in the violence without going through the judgement, which was actually based upon the minimization of abuse of the Act.

The petition also alleged that the protests were "calculatively and deliberately" hatched to "undermine" the supremacy of the apex court in constitutional matters.