In an important judgment, the Supreme Court has introduced major directions to prevent misuse of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 in opposition to the officers who deal with the complaints under the Act in their official capacity.

The bench has issued the directions in an appeal lodged by Dr Subhash Kashinath Mahajan against the Bombay High Court judgment rejecting to cancel the FIR filed against him for offences alleged under the Act.

The bench of Justice AK Goel and Justice UU Lalit noted the question raised in the aforesaid appeal is this: “Whether any unilateral allegation of mala fide can be ground to prosecute officers who dealt with the matter in official capacity and if such allegation mala fide can be ground to prosecute officers who dealt with the matter in official capacity and if such allegation is falsely made what is protection available against such abuse.”

It has held that prior sanction of appointing authority is mandatory for prosecuting officers for acts done by them with respect to SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 in their official capacity.

The judgment was pronounced by a Bench of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit in an appeal against a judgment of the Bombay High Court, which had refused to make void the prosecution of one Subhash Kashinath Mahajan, who is the Director of Technical Education.

By way of background, certain unpleasant comments were recorded against respondent Bhaskar Karbhari Gaikwad by the Principal and Head of the Department of the College of Pharmacy where the respondent was employed. Gaikwad sought consent for the prosecution of the Principal under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and for certain other connected offences.

The said matter was dealt with by the appellant, who was then the Director of Technical Education. The appellant declined to sanction the same, whereupon another complaint was filed by the respondent against the appellant under the Act. The quashing of the said complaint was declined by the High Court, leading to appeal in Supreme Court.

The Bench includes the judges Senior Advocate Amarendra Sharan to assist the court along with advocate Amit Anand Tiwari. It had also heard by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh.