Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said a Bill to amend the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act, cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday, will be introduced in Parliament in the ongoing session for consideration and passage.
“I don’t know why the members are raising this issue now. I think they are aware and they have the knowledge that the Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill,” Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.
He said the entire country knew that the Supreme Court had diluted the SC/ST Act through its ruling that a preliminary enquiry was required to arrest any person even under the SC/ST Act meant for preventing atrocities against those covered under the Act.
“The Prime Minister has said then if there is any dilution in the Act, we will bring a bill. And there is no if and but in it, he (Modi) had promised,” he said. “We will introduce the Bill in this session of Parliament to make it a law.”
The Home Minister’s remarks come a day after the Union Cabinet decided to restore a provision of the SC/ST Act allowing the arrest of accused persons without a preliminary enquiry or prior approval that was recently struck down by the Supreme Court.