Study on performance of Special courts set up under the SC ST Prevention of Atrocity Act By: Centre for Study of Casteism, Communalism and Law (CSCCL), National Law School, Bangalore, India CONTENTS Acknowledgements Executive Summary PART - I Chapter I - Introduction Problem Scope of the study Terms of reference Research questions Research propositions Chapter II - Research Methodology Study design: Phase I Tools for data collection: secondary data: Phase II Primary Data collection: Phase III Phase IV: Data entry Phase V: Data analysis Phase VI: Report writing (A) The Study design Main causes for increasing atrocities against SCs and STs: General Format-I 2 (B) The Working of Special Courts Court basic profile: Checklist-I Individual cases: Checklist-II Interrupted time series design Selection of Special Courts (C) Secondary Data Collection Research Samples: Table 2 Scope and Limitation Chapter III- A Critical Review of the Constitutional Protection and Statutory Provisions with special reference to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 Constitutional Scheme Legislative History Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955 Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 Critical Review of the enactment Chapter IV - Working of the Designated Special Courts and the Exclusive Special Courts Case processing times and delay Individual cases across states: Table 3 Implementation of SCs and STs POA Act, 1989 The total number of cases collected from six states for the study: Table 4 3 Analysis of SCs/STs Atrocity cases from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Special (Exclusive and Designated Courts) The total number of cases collected from Exclusive Special Courts (ESC) and Designated Special Courts (DSC) among three Southern States: Table 5 Section wise distribution of cases: Table 6 Average Time Taken (in Days) between stages of case processing in the Exclusive Special Courts (ESC) and Designated Special Courts (DSC) of three states: Table 7 Average time taken to dispose of the cases by three states-before (during the presence of Designated Special Courts) and after introduction of Exclusive Special Courts (ESC): Table 8 The disposal of case in ESC and DSC of three Southern states: Table 9 Reasons for high rate of acquittals in atrocity cases State-wise conviction and acquittal rates in Exclusive Special Courts and Designated Special Courts: Table 10 Percentage of Convictions and Acquittals Percentage of registered cases and disposal rates filed at both Designated Special Courts (DSC) and Exclusive Special Courts (ESC) (Prior to the inception of ESC until its inception in the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka): Table 11 Number of Hearings Average time taken to dispose off case ‘Before’ (during Designated Special Court) and ‘After’ introduction of Exclusive Special Courts (ESC) in Karnataka: Table 12 4 Average time taken to Dispose of the cases ‘Before’ and ‘After’ the introduction of Exclusive Special Courts in Tamil Nadu: Table 13 Average time taken to dispose off cases ‘Before’ (during DSC) and ‘After’ the introduction of Exclusive Special Courts (ESC) in Andhra Pradesh: Table 14 Chapter V – Working of the Actors: perception and vies of the interviewees (A) Causes for delay i) Systemic reasons Causes for delay by different actors within the criminal justice system ii) Delay in Court processes iii) Government caused delay iv) Administrative Delay (B) Reasons for high rate of acquittals in atrocity cases Hostile witness Preconception of misuse of the Act (C) Analysis of the Perceptions of Judges, Special Public Prosecutors, Investigating Police Officers, Witnesses, Victims and Dalit Leaders about the delay and the SCs/STs(POA) Act, 1989 Chapter VI- An analysis of judicial reasoning (A) Reasons for high rate of acquittals 5 (B) Hostile complainant and witnesses (C) Interested witnesses (D) Procedural delays (E) Investigation Officer (F) Delay in filing First Information report (G) Atrocities against Dalit women (H) Medical Examination (I) Proof of caste (J) Conclusions PART - II Main causes/Reasons for increasing crimes on SCs and STs (A) Sociological survey of the causes for atrocities against Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Introduction Methodology Review of Literature Major reasons for increasing atrocities against SCs Major reasons for increasing atrocities against STs Reappearance of structural violence Conclusions (B) Causes for atrocities against Scheduled Castes 6 PART - III RECOMMENDATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY ANNEXURE Annexure I - Checklist I (Court profile) Annexure II - Checklist II (Individual cases) Annexure III - General format I (Case study) Annexure IV - General format II (Exclusive Special Court impact: before/after) Annexure V - Questionnaire I (Judges) Annexure VI - Questionnaire II (Superintendent of Police) Annexure VII - Questionnaire III (Defense Attorney) Annexure VIII - Interview Schedule I (Investigating Police Officer) Annexure IX - Interview Schedule II (Witnesses) Annexure X - Interview Schedule III (Court Administrative Staff) Annexure XI - Interview Schedule IV (Victims) Annexure XII - Interview Schedule V (Accused) Annexure XIII - Interview Schedule VI (Dalit Leaders) Annexure XIV - Data Analysis of Questionnaire & Interview Schedule Annexure XV - Case studies Annexure XVI -Recommendations by P.S. Krishnan (National Commission for Backward classes) 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We deeply appreciate and acknowledge the co-operation, support and hard work, of all those who have assisted in carrying out this study to its successful completion. To start this work the permission from the Six State Governments to access records of both the Designated and Exclusive Special Courts was of paramount importance and without which we could not have progressed. We acknowledge all the government employees who have helped us in accessing the court records. In Karnataka especially we thank Director of Public Prosecution without whose help it would have been impossible to get all the required data for our study. We are deeply indebted to the following individuals who worked with us to undertake the required research work in all the six States: Mr.T.Kannan has formed the research design and accordingly coordinated the research work in the 6 States of India. He has also analyzed the data and wrote a chapter on it. Tamil Nadu research was coordinated by Mr. P. Ramesh with whom Mr. Pandi Rajan (Advocate) and Mr.Ganesan(Advocate) worked as Field Investigator Andhra Pradesh research was coordinated by Anveshi – NGO with whom Ms.Snehalatha and Mr.Venkat worked as Field Investigators. Karnataka research was coordinated by Kannan with whom Mrs.Jaya Bharati and Ms.Surekha Jain worked as Field Investigators. In north India, that is Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat was coordinated by Ms.Nupur Sinha and Damini Patel from Center for Social Justice, Gujarat. The analysis of the huge data collected from all the six states was analysed by Ms.Binitha, using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) programme due to which the explanation on the research result could be simplified and could be presented neatly. Finally we acknowledge the efforts of Ms.Roopa and Ms.Sumitra Acharya who worked day and night to give a final shape to the report to present it to the ministry. 8 We are grateful to the all the coordinators and Field Investigators who carried out this study in the various States across the country inspite of lot of problems they faced in accessing the court records. It was for their patience and hardwork we could get hold of some court data without which the report would not have seen the light of the day. We are grateful to Mrs.Sumitha who has translated the cases in Gujarati to English for our understanding. We record our gratitude to our L.L.B Students Rashmi (III year), Geethanjali (III Year), Pooja (III Year), Nayya (III Year), Anubhav (III Year), Vipul (III Year), Suchetha (III Year), Simran and Pranesh of the National Law School of India, University, Bangalore, who despite the pressures of their academic work assisted in innumerable ways in completing this study. Finally, we appreciate the assistance of Sandhya, in tirelessly entering the data, typing up the report and responding to the many demands of the researchers, promptly and efficiently. Dr. S. Japhet. Faculty Coordinator Centre for Study of Casteism, Communalism and Law (CSCCL) National Law School, Bangalore, India 9 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 was enacted to respond to the increasing atrocities against the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Act, provision has been made for setting up of special courts to ensure speedy disposal of cases. Despite this special provision, atrocities continue to be on the rise. This report seeks to critically examine the functioning of the special courts and also seeks to anlyse the reasons and causes for increasing atrocities. Data has been collected from special courts in six states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Questionaires were administered to various stake holders such as judges, prosecutors, witnesses, court staff, police, victims and the accused. 10 PART I CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Independent India, even after fifty seven years, is plagued by widespread discrimination against the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Despite the Constitutional guarantees seeking to protect and promote