Supreme Court Clarifies: Insulting an Individual from SC/ST Community Without Caste-Based Context Not an Offence Under SC/ST Act

New Delhi— The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that insulting or humiliating an individual belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) community without invoking their caste, tribe, or the concept of untouchability does not constitute an offence under the stringent provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The ruling was delivered by a bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra while granting anticipatory bail to Shajan Skaria, editor of an online Malayalam news channel. Skaria had been booked under the SC/ST Act for calling CPM MLA P V Sreenijan, who belongs to the SC community, a “mafia don.” Both the trial court and the Kerala High Court had previously denied him pre-arrest bail.

The bench observed, "Not every intentional insult or intimidation of a member of an SC/ST community will result in a feeling of caste-based humiliation."

The court further stated that there was no prima facie evidence to suggest that Skaria, by publishing the video on YouTube, intended to promote enmity, hatred, or ill-will against the SC/ST community at large. "The video has nothing to do in general with members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes. His target was just the complainant (Sreenijan) alone," the bench noted.

In the 70-page judgment authored by Justice Pardiwala, the court emphasized that the SC/ST Act is intended to address insults or intimidation arising from practices like untouchability or to reinforce historically entrenched ideas of caste superiority. "It is only in those cases where the intentional insult or intimidation takes place either due to the prevailing practice of untouchability or to reinforce historically entrenched ideas like the superiority of the ‘upper castes' over the ‘lower castes/untouchables', the notions of ‘purity' and ‘pollution', etc. that it could be said to be an insult or intimidation of the type envisaged by the 1989 Act," the judgment explained.

The bench clarified that the intent to humiliate must be considered within a broader context, stating, "It is not ordinary insult or intimidation which would amount to ‘humiliation' that is sought to be made punishable under the 1989 Act." Referring specifically to the "mafia don" remark, the bench suggested that Skaria could, at most, be prima facie liable for defamation under Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).