Kanpur, April 5: The row over Supreme Court's March 20 ruling, which banned the immediate arrest of a person accused of hurting or causing harm to a person of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe category, refuses to die down as members of a Dalit Party named Bhartiya Dalit Panthers Party penned a letter in blood to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind against the alleged dilution of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Supreme Court. This comes two days after a Bharat Bandh was called by several Dalits groups across the country in which at least 11 people lost their lives.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had refused to change its March 20 ruling and had commented that its order had not diluted the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in any way. The ruling Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit said that it merely implemented Section 41 of the CrPc. The Supreme Court also observed that those protesting had not read the order properly and the ruling bench asserted that the judgement was to protect an innocent from getting booked wrongly under the act.

“Our judgment implements what is said in the Constitution. We are conscious of the rights of the underprivileged and place them at the highest pedestal... but at the same time, an innocent person cannot be falsely implicated and arrested without proper verification. We have not stopped the implementation of the Act. Does the Act mandate the arrest of innocent persons? Our judgment is not against the Act,” Justice Goel addressed Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal. The judgement had created a balance between the rights of a dalit and an innocent accused arrested under the act, said Justice Goel.

The Bhartiya Dalit Panthers Party members also paid tribute to those who died in the Bharat Bandh protest across the country. There has been no reaction on the "Blood-letter" by prime minister's or the president's office.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 05, 2018 04:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).