Sudden utterance of caste name during altercation without intent to insult will not attract SC/ST Act: Orissa High Court

The Orissa High Court recently observed that sudden utterance of abuse with the name of caste during an altercation without any intention to insult on the basis of caste, will not by itself attract an offence under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (SC/ ST Act) [Ajay Pattanaik @ Ajaya Kumar and anr v. State of Odisha and anr]..Justice RK Pattanaik highlighted that there should be an intention by the perpetrator to insult to insult or humiliate the victim for an offence to be made out under the SC/ST Act..“If someone is abused with the name of his caste or the caste is uttered suddenly in course of events and during the incident, in the humble view of the Court, by itself would not be sufficient to hold that any offence under the SC and ST (PoA) Act is made out unless the intention is to insult or humiliate the victim for the reason that he belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe is prima facie established,” the Court said..On this aspect, the Court also referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hitesh Verma v. State of Uttarakhand and another wherein the top Court had held that an offence under the SC/ST Act would not be established without there being any intention to humiliate the victim on account of his or her caste..The Court also noted the person stated to have been verbally abused by the petitioners on account of his caste had not lodged the case..In view of these factors, the High Court set aside charges levelled against Section 3 of the SC/ST Act against two persons (petitioners) who had moved a plea seeking the same, among other prayers..The case was rooted in a 2017 incident, when the petitioners had got involved in an altercation with certain others. .As per the prosecution, the complainant was returning home when he was abused in filthy language, assaulted and terrorised by the petitioners-accused. .This led to others arriving at the spot and trying to intervene to rescue the complainant. The victim (who belonged to a Scheduled Caste) was one among such interveners. It was at this juncture that one of the petitioners allegedly criminally intimidated the victim and cast aspersions on his caste..In this backdrop, the Court opined that it was too much of a stretch to assume that the petitioners had intended to insult or humiliate the victim on the basis of his caste.“To claim that it was with an intention to insult or humiliate the witness present at the spot and the alleged offences under the Special Act are committed would be like stretching things too far and unjustified,” the Court said. .Hence, the Court quashed the SC/ST Act charges against the accused. However, the Court declined to set aside other charges levelled against the petitioners in the matter under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which included causing hurt and criminal intimidation..[Read Order]