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Shashikant Sharma & Ors. vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2023 INSC 1036Decided 1 Dec 2023
Criminal Appeal No. 3663 of 2023
Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha · Sandeep Mehta

Background

The appellants, accused in a case rooted in political rivalry in Hathras, had charges framed against them under IPC sections including attempt to murder (Section 307) and also under Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act, after the Special Judge and the Allahabad High Court rejected their discharge applications. The appellants did not contest the IPC charges (accepting that would need a full trial) but argued that the SC/ST Act charge was legally unsustainable because the prosecution's own case showed the alleged serious IPC offence (firing a gunshot) was directed at one person, while the caste-based abuse alleged was against a different person who suffered no such serious injury. The medical report on the gunshot victim also found no gunshot injury, only a boil/abscess.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court explained that Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act requires that the specific IPC offence punishable with 10+ years' imprisonment be committed against a person known to belong to a Scheduled Caste/Tribe. Here, the only such serious IPC offence alleged (Section 307, attempt to murder) was said to have been committed against Rinku Thakur, who is not shown to belong to an SC/ST community, while the caste abuse was hurled at a different witness, Virender Kumar, against whom no offence of that gravity was alleged. Since the prosecution's own admitted case did not link the two elements to the same victim, the essential ingredients of the SC/ST Act offence were not made out even on a prima facie basis. The Court quashed the charge under Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act and the order rejecting discharge on that count, while allowing the trial on the remaining IPC charges to continue, and since the SC/ST Act charge fell away, it transferred the trial from the Special (SC/ST) Court to the regular Sessions Court.

Lesson Learnt

A charge under the SC/ST Atrocities Act cannot survive merely because caste abuse and a serious crime both occurred in the same episode. The law requires that the serious offence itself be committed against the same person known to belong to that community; even at the charge-framing stage, courts must ensure this specific link is disclosed by the prosecution's own case.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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