Criminal Misc. No. M- 2967 of 2011 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Criminal Misc. No. M- 2967 of 2011 Date of decision:- 25.2.2011 Sanjay ...Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and another ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE RITU BAHRI Present:- Mr. Rajiv Sharma, Advocate for the petitioner. RITU BAHRI J.(Oral) This petition is under Section 438 Cr.P.C. read with Section 482 Cr.P.C. for grant of anticipatory bail in criminal complaint bearing No.120/1/2006 titled “Surjit Kumar versus Sanjay Sharma and another” under Sections ¾ of Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 pending in the Court of Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Jalandhar. Learned counsel for the petitioner ha referred to a certificate Annexure P-1 of the petitioner's caste and contends that Sanjay Kumar-petitioner belongs to scheduled caste and as per Section 3 of Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, which is reproduced as below :- 3. Punishment for offence of atrocities.- (1) Whoever, not being a member of Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe - (i) forces a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to drink or eat any inedible or obnoxious substance; (ii) acts with intent to cause injury, insult or annoyance to any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe by dumping Criminal Misc. No. M- 2967 of 2011 -2- excreta, waste matter, carcasses or any other obnoxious substance in his premises or neighbourhood;` (iii) forcibly removes clothes from the person of a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or parades him naked or with painted face or body or commits any similar act which is derogatory to human dignity; (iv) wrongfully occupies or cultivates any land owned by, or allotted to, or notified by any competent authority to be allotted to, a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or gets the land allotted to him transferred; (v) wrongfully dispossesses a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe from his land or premises or interferes with the enjoyment of his rights over any land, premises or water; (vi) compels or entices a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to do 'begar' or other similar forms of forced or bonded labour other than any compulsory service for public purposes imposed by Government; (vii) forces or intimidates a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe not to vote or to vote to a particular candidate or to vote in a manner other than that provided by law; (viii) institutes false, malicious or vexatious suit or criminal or other legal proceedings against a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe; (ix) gives any false or frivolous information to any public servant and thereby causes such public servant to use his lawful power to the injury or annoyance of a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe; (x) intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place within public view; (xi) assaults or uses force to any woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonour or outrage her modesty; (xii) being in a position to dominate the will of a woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe and uses that position to exploit her sexually to which she would not have otherwise agreed; Criminal Misc. No. M- 2967 of 2011 -3- (xiii) corrupts or fouls the water of any spring, reservoir or any other source ordinarily used by members of the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes so as to render it less fit for the purposes for which it is ordinarily used; (xiv) denies a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe any customary right or passage to a place of public resort or obstructs such member so as to prevent him from using or having access to a place of public resort to which other members of public or any section thereof have a right to use or access to; (xv) forces or causes a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to leave his house, village or other place of residence, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to five years and with fine. (2) Whoever, not being a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe. -- (i) gives or fabricates false evidence intending thereby to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause, any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to be convicted of an offence which is capital by the law for the time being in force shall be punished with imprisonment for life and with fine; and if an innocent member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe be convicted and executed in consequence of such false or fabricated evidence, the person who gives or fabricates such false evidence, shall be punished with death; (ii) gives or fabricates false evidence intending thereby to cause, or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause, any member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to be convicted of an offence which is not capital but punishable with imprisonment for a term of seven years or upwards, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to seven years or upwards and with fine; (iii) commits mischief by fire or any explosive substance intending to cause or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause damage to any property belonging to a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to seven years and with fine; (iv) commits mischief by fire or any explosive substance intending to cause or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby cause destruction of any building which is ordinarily used as a place Criminal Misc. No. M- 2967 of 2011 -4- of worship or as a place for human dwelling or as a place for custody of the property by a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, shall be punishable with imprisonment for life and with fine; (v) commits any offence under the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860) punishable with imprisonment for a term of ten years or more against a person or property on the ground that such person is a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe or such- property belongs to such member, shall be punishable with imprisonment for life and with fine; (vi) knowingly or having reason to believe that an offence has been committed under this Chapter, causes any evidence of the commission of that offence to disappear with the intention of screening the offender from legal punishment, or with that intention gives any information respecting the offence which he knows or believes to be false, shall be punishable with the punishment provided for that offence; or (vii) being a public servant, commits any offence under this section, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to the punishment provided for that offence. is not applicable to a person belongs to scheduled caste. Once the Act is not applicable to a person of Scheduled Caste then the bar under Section 18 of the said Act as per the order of Judicial Magistrate, is not applicable. The petitioner is granted anticipatory bail to the satisfaction Chief Judicial Magistrate/Duty Magistrate, Jalandhar. The petition is disposed of. February 25, 2011 ( RITU BAHRI ) Vijay Asija JUDGE