SCHEDULED CASTE SCHEDULED TRIBES PREVENTION OF ATROCITIES ACT

• 1989 Act.
• Enforcing agency : Ministry Of Social Justice & Empowerment makes State governments & UT administrations responsible.
• stipulate constitution of State and District Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committees to periodically review implementation of the provisions of the PoA Act and relief and rehabilitation facilities provided to the victims
• define atrocities against SCs and STs
• Provides for six months to 1 years imprisonment
• Amended in 2015 to include certain provisions given in the picture. à
• Supreme Court stopped the ‘immediate arrest’ clause under its provisions
• Two new  clauses added by Supreme court 2018 verdict:

1. public servants can only be arrested after written permission from the appointing authority
2. private citizen’s  arrest requires a preliminary investigation by at least a DSP rank officer

• Scheduled Castes/Tribes are sometimes referred to as untouchables; in Tamil Nadu they are referred as Adi Dravida; and in other states mostly referred as scheduled castes.
• The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes comprise about 16.6% and 8.6%, respectively, of India’s population (according to the 2011 census.
• The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 lists 1,108 castes across 29 states in its First Schedule,[7] and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 lists 744 tribes across 22 states in its First Schedule.
• Morley–Minto Reforms Report, Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms Report and the Simon Commission were several initiatives  for representation of the Depressed Classes in provincial and central legislatures.
• Government of India Act 1935, designed to give Indian provinces greater self-rule and set up a national federal structure. The reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes was incorporated into the act,
• Act introduced the term “Scheduled Castes”, defining the group as “such castes, races or tribes or parts of groups within castes, races or tribes, which appear to His Majesty in Council to correspond to the classes of persons formerly known as the ‘Depressed Classesas “ as His Majesty in Council may prefer”
• Constituent Assembly continued the prevailing definition of SCs and STs, giving (via articles 341 and 342) the president of India and governors a mandate to compile a full listing of castes and tribes.
• Articles 338 and 338A provides for two statutory commissions:
  • National Commission for Scheduled Castes,
  • National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.