The road from Tiruppur
The speedy trial and conviction in a Tamil Nadu ‘honour killing’ case indicates that amended SC/ ST Prevention of Atrocities act is yielding results.
The trial was completed one year and nine months after the crime. (Representational photo)
The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act 2015 (POA Amend. Act) has begun to yield results. The Act was enacted to comprehensively amend and strengthen the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 (POA Act 1989). Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur Principal District and Sessions Court has on December 12, 2017 convicted eight of the accused for the murder of V. Shankar, a B.Tech-educated Dalit youth, son of a labourer, as a punishment for the marriage between him and Kausalya, a non-Dalit, educated girl from a middle-class family. The court awarded death sentences to six of the accused, including Kausalya’s father.
The trial was completed one year and nine months after the crime. This is fast by Indian standards and was facilitated by the appointment of an exclusive Special Public Prosecutor by the state government, in accordance with the POA Amend. Act. The trial could have been completed even faster — the Act lays down a time limit of two months — if the state government had, as required by the amended Act and Rules, also taken the following steps: One, establish an exclusive special court. Two, set up a high-powered “vigilance and monitoring committee”, with the chief minister as chairman and ministers of home, finance, and SC and ST departments, SC and ST MPs, MLAs and MLCs, senior bureaucrats, and local representatives of national commissions for SCs and STs as members. This committee is required to meet every January and July and discharge functions listed in Rule 16.
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