The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has informed the Madras High Court Bench here that the rate of conviction in cases booked under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 in the State was 4.3% compared to the national average of 25.8%.
Only 7.2% and 12.6% cases ended up in conviction in the State in 2014 and 2013, against the national average of 28.8% and 22.8% respectively.
The submission was made in a counter-affidavit filed in reply to a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to the Centre as well as the State government to provide additional non-monetary relief, such as employment on compassionate grounds, pension, agricultural land or dwelling house to Dalit victims in rape and murder cases.
Providing details of Central assistance provided to the State government including relief and rehabilitation of Dalit victims, S. Arvind Kumar, Director, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, said the amount got reduced from ₹16.81crore in the financial year 2013-14 to ₹ 7.2 crore in 2014-15 and dropped to ₹ 4.7 crore in 2015-16. However, it went up to ₹ 17.75 crore in 2016-17.
‘Onus on State’
“Since provisions of the SC/ST Act and the rules framed thereunder are implemented by the State government concerned, it is for the Government of Tamil Nadu to provide permissible relief and rehabilitation to the victim of atrocity or his/her dependant as per the relevant provisions of the Act and the statutory rules,” the Centre said and sought to dismiss the PIL petition against it on merit.
On the other hand, P. Annamalai, Principal Secretary, Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, filed a status report claiming that the Centre had released ₹ 11.87 crore for 2016-17 for relief and rehabilitation of victims of atrocities and the entire amount was fully utilised by disbursing it to all in the districts in the State.
Pointing out that the statutory rules under the Act were framed in 1995 and amended in 2011 as well as in 2016 for increasing the quantum of compensation and additional relief measures to be provided to victims of atrocities, he said that it would not be possible to give retrospective effect to the rules in vogue.
“Enhanced compensation and all additional relief measures are being sanctioned to the victims of heinous crimes, such as murder, rape, etc., only if the date of occurrence of crime falls after April 14, 2016, the date on which the amended rules were notified in the Government of India Gazette,” Mr. Annamalai said.
Three months sought
Submitting a short list of eight Dalit victims who were provided compassionate employment in government service since 1996, the Principal Secretary sought three months time to file a comprehensive report on all kinds of non-monetary relief provided to such victims between 1995 and 2016 since he had called for the details from all the district Collectors.
Refusing to grant such a long time, a Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and N. Authinathan posted further hearing on the PIL petition by N. Dhanapal, a local office-bearer of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, to Tuesday, after agreeing with his counsel R. Alagumani that it is the duty of the State to identify all victims and their families and provide relief.
