Crl. Misc. No.M-17828 of 2010 ::1:: IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH Crl. Misc. No.M-17828 of 2010 Date of decision: 02.11.2010 Ghala Singh .. Petitioner Versus State of Haryana .. Respondent Present:- Ms.Sonia Jain, Advocate, for Mr.Gaurav Mohunta , Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Pawan Singh, DAG, Haryana. * * * S.S. SARON, J. Heard counsel for the parties. The petitioner seeks pre-arrest bail in case FIR No.97 dated 15.3.2010 registered against him at Police Station Ratia, District Fatehabad for the offences under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 Indian Penal Code as also Section 3 (i) (iv) and (v) of The Scheduled Castes and The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 ("Act" – for short). The co-accused of the petitioner has been granted bail by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Fatehabad, vide order dated 01.04.2010 (Annexure P-2). It is submitted that the petitioner is a Lambardar of the village and he has been a marginal witness to various sale deeds, which he signs so as to identify the executants of the deeds. It is also submitted that in the present case, the petitioner is not a beneficiary of the sale deed. The Crl. Misc. No.M-17828 of 2010 ::2:: persons who were beneficiaries have been granted pre-arrest bail in terms of order dated 01.04.2010 (Annexure P-2). Therefore, the petitioner is not liable to be denied the concession of pre-arrest bail. Learned counsel for the State on instructions from ASI Krishan Kumar, Police Station Ratia, District Fatehabad has submitted that the petitioner has joined the investigation and his custody is not required for the purposes of investigation. The petitioner himself, it is submitted, is a member of the Schedule Caste. If that be so, he would not be liable for the offences under Section 3 (i), (iv) and (v) of the Act as Section 3 which provides for punishment for offences of atrocities, envisages that whoever, not being a member of Schedule Castes or Schedule Tribes commits one of the acts as enumerated in Clauses (i) to (xv) therein, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to five years and with fine. Therefore, only such persons who are not members of the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe would be liable to be punished for the commission of aforesaid offences. However, the petitioner himself being the member of the Scheduled Caste, the said provisions would not be attracted. In the facts and circumstances, the interim bail granted on 29.06.2010 is made absolute. The criminal miscellaneous petition stands disposed of. (S.S. SARON) JUDGE November 02, 2010 sukhpreet/amit