Following a Madras High Court order in June 2015, the Registrar General of the Court submitted a proposal for setting up 16 new special courts to try cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. However, despite the Tamil Nadu government sanctioning ₹12.88 crore in April this year, no new courts have been set up yet. In the meantime, cases registered under the Act are piling up in the six existing courts in the State where these cases are currently being heard.
According to data provided by the Additional Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, in August 2016, over 4,500 cases are pending under the law in the lower courts. K. Indumathi, Registrar at the Madras High Court, told The Hindu that funds for four new courts had been received so far, but a place was yet to be identified to set them up.
A. Narayanan, Director of the NGO Change India, whose intervention led to the order to set up the additional courts, said that he was happy that both the High Court and the Tamil Nadu government had come forward to set up more courts, but requested speedy action on the same. “It is hoped that the first four Special Courts will be in place, at least before the end of 2017-18,” he said. In 2012, there were four Special Courts — in Trichy, Thanjavur, Thirunelveli and Madurai. Subsequent to the proceedings in the writ petition filed by Mr. Narayanan, two Special Courts were set up in Villupuram and Sivagangai in 2015.
Justice delayed
D. Ravikumar, political leader and former MLA, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, told The Hindu that when it came to caste violence in the State, justice is often denied to the victims. “Tamil Nadu is the only state where an SC/ST Commission has not been set up,” he noted, adding that cases of honour killings and murders of SC/ST people were increasing and this had to be curbed urgently.
P. Sampath, President of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Forum, charged that in the aftermath of the death of E. Ilavarasan, a Dalit youth who married a Vanniar woman, in a suspected case of honour killing in Dharmapuri, caste violence broke out in the village he hailed from, where Dalit homes were torched by rival upper caste members, but no measures were taken by the police to contain the violence.
“This is just one example of how the law has failed the Dalits,” he said.
Vincent Raj (Kathir), Director of Evidence, a Madurai-based NGO, said that in his experience it was not only that the acquittals surpassed convictions several times over, which failed the victims, but the very process of registering an FIR was often compromised, which is the first step in recording a caste-related crime.
“Even now the police are reluctant to register cases of violence against Dalits. Though the amended SC/ST Atrocities Act has provisions to punish erring officers, this clause isn’t used,” he said.
