The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that no leniency should be shown by courts to persons who paraded a tribal woman naked on the road and outraged her modesty.
A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra said: “The parading of a tribal woman on the village road in broad day light is shameful, shocking and outrageous. The dishonour of the victim called for harsher punishment, and we are surprised that the State government did not file any appeal for enhancement of the punishment awarded by the Additional Sessions Judge.”
The Bench pointed out that the woman, belonging to the Bhil tribe, a Scheduled Tribe in Maharashtra, was beaten, stripped naked and then paraded on the road while being beaten and abused by the accused.
The Bench referred to the submission of the appellants, Kailas and three others, who were sentenced to undergo one year imprisonment, alleging that “the people belonging to the Bhil community live in torn clothes as they do not have proper clothes to wear,” and said “this itself shows the mentality of the accused who regard tribal people as inferior or sub-human. This is totally unacceptable in modern India.”
The Bench said: “This appeal furnishes a typical instance of how many of our people in India have been treating the tribal people [Scheduled Tribes or Adivasis], who are probably the descendants of the original inhabitants of India, but now constitute only about 8 per cent of our total population, and as a group is one of the most marginalised and vulnerable communities in India characterised by high level of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, disease, and landlessness.”
“Since India is a country of great diversity, it is absolutely essential, if we wish to keep our country united, to have tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects. The Constitution guarantees to all citizens Freedom of Speech (Article 19), Freedom of Religion (Article 25), Equality (Articles 14 to 17), Liberty (Article 21), etc. However, giving formal equality to all groups or communities in India would not result in genuine equality.”
The Bench was of the view that the historically disadvantaged groups must be given special protection and help so that they could be uplifted from their poverty and low social status.
Dismissing the appeal, the Bench said: “We are surprised that the conviction of the accused under the Scheduled Cases and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was set aside on hyper-technical grounds that the caste certificate was not produced. These appear to be only technicalities and hardly a ground for acquittal [of this charge], but since no appeal has been filed against that part of the High Court judgment, we are now not going into it. However, we see no reason to interfere with the judgment of the High Court convicting the appellants under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and imposing fine on them.”
