http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/soon-exclusive-courts-for-disposal-of-scst-atrocity-cases/625548.html
Soon, exclusive courts for disposal of SC/ST atrocity cases
PTI | 11:03 AM,Mar 27,2011
Anil Nair New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Taking serious note of the trial
mechanism and poor conviction rate in cases of atrocities against
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Centre has asked all the
states to set up exclusive special courts to handle such matters. The
move comes after NGOs and social groups repeatedly told the government
that there was a rise in atrocity cases against SC/ST in the past few
years and that the trial procedure and conviction rate in courts
across the country were poor. "The government has circulated a concept
note to all states regarding setting up of exclusive special courts
for SC/ST cases," Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik
told PTI. He said that certain states have already announced their
decision to set up these special courts and discussions were underway
at various levels to make this a reality. According to latest
statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), between 1995
to 2009 as many as 80,489 cases of atrocity against people of
Scheduled Tribes were registered, of which 1,911 were murder cases and
7,537 rape cases. Though the NCRB has not given similar data for
atrocity cases against Scheduled Castes, a report tabled in Parliament
in the Budget Session showed that in 2008 itself as many as 30,913
offences were registered. Wasnik admitted that the conviction rates in
such cases was "abysmally" low at 27 per cent as compared to that of
other IPC offences. He also lamented that the pendency of these cases
in courts nationwide was as much as 81 per cent. Retired senior IAS
officer P S Krishnan, who is credited for the formulation of the SC/ST
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, has been advocating on the urgent need
to set up the exclusive special courts. "Apart from the issue of
pendency of large number of cases, the issue here is that there is a
dearth of lawyers and judges to hear such matters," Krishnan said. He
said tribals face a lot of problems when they go to regular courts as
nobody understands their language and issues. Krishnan also said there
was a need for day-to-day trial of SC/ST cases once the special courts
were set up. As per the official figures, at the end of 2009, as many
as 15,909 cases of crimes against ST remained pending in courts.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and
Orissa have the maximum number of instances of crimes against SC/ST
community, the figures indicated. "The need of the hour is to have
exclusive special courts, lawyers from the SC/ST community and aware
of their rights and issues and also investigators who can handle such
cases," the retired bureaucrat said.
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