{"id":126982,"date":"2026-10-01T11:06:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T05:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=126982"},"modified":"2026-10-01T11:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T05:52:24","slug":"sc-st-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sc-st-act\/","title":{"rendered":"SC\/ST Act: Calcutta HC Extends Public View to Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>SC\/ST Act Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Calcutta High Court has held that casteist slurs on social media can attract provisions of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/prevention-of-atrocities-act\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>SC\/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, ruling that &#8220;public view&#8221; under the law is not confined to physical spaces.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A single bench of Justice Uday Kumar held that the requirement of &#8220;public view&#8221; under Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the Act &#8220;transcends physical space into the digital domain.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This ruling comes weeks after the Supreme Court reiterated that not every caste-related remark amounts to an offence under the Act, and that courts must closely examine whether its statutory requirements are met \u2014 making this an important, evolving area of law.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What the Law Says<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the SC\/ST Act <\/span><b>criminalise<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> intentionally insulting, intimidating or abusing a member of a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe by caste name, &#8220;in any place within public view.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To establish these offences, <\/span><b>three elements<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> must be satisfied:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The accused must not be a member of an SC\/ST community.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The act must be intended to humiliate the victim on the basis of caste.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The incident must occur in a place within public view.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital cases typically hinge on this third requirement.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>How Courts Have Interpreted Public View So Far<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Hitesh Verma v. State of Uttarakhand (2020)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 <\/span><b>Supreme Court<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The SC held that public view means a place where members of the public can witness or hear the alleged utterance.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It clarified: &#8220;If the alleged offence takes place within the four corners of the wall where members of the public are not present, then it cannot be said that it has taken place at a place within public view.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Ramkrishna Chauhan v. State of Uttar Pradesh<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2026) \u2014 <\/span><b>Supreme Court<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Apex Court quashed proceedings against a school manager under both clauses. The bench held the requirement depends on whether the alleged utterance was made in circumstances where members of the public could witness or hear it.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crucially, it added: &#8220;the mere fact that the occurrence took place within the premises of a school does not, by itself, satisfy this requirement.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This shows the Supreme Court has been applying the test cautiously and narrowly in physical-space cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What the Calcutta High Court Held<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The petitioner, a member of a Scheduled Caste, alleged that two men from general caste communities had &#8220;hurled foul, unparliamentary, and casteist expletives targeting his caste identity, religion, God, and family&#8221; on Facebook.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Police approached Facebook through the Cyber Police Station, Kolkata, but did not receive user details.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Police then filed a &#8220;<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Final Report True, No Clue<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8221; \u2014 effectively closing the case.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The complainant challenged this closure, but the Special Court at Alipore rejected his petition.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>The HC&#8217;s Intervention<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The High Court set aside the Special Court&#8217;s order.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court held it &#8220;transcends physical space into the digital domain.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It noted that police had seized screenshots and recorded statements during investigation, and therefore the investigating agency &#8220;cannot throw up its hands reporting &#8216;no clue'&#8221; after a mere local cyber inquiry failed \u2014 without exhausting specialised State CID cyber-forensic or IP-log tracking protocols.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a <\/span><b>significant procedural direction<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: investigators must pursue advanced technical methods before declaring a dead end.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Emerging Judicial Pattern<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramias.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp\/current-affairs\/2026\/10\/01091431\/Emerging-Judicial-Pattern.jpg\" alt=\"Emerging Judicial Pattern\" title=\"Emerging Judicial Pattern\" class=\"my-image my-image-size-full my-image-align-none\" style=\"width: auto; height: 280px;\" \/><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pattern shows courts applying a stricter, circumstance-based test for physical spaces, while <\/span><b>extending the concept more liberally to digital spaces<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 recognising that online content, by its nature, has unlimited potential viewership.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The law was written for a world without screenshots and social media feeds, yet courts are now stretching &#8220;public view&#8221; to cover exactly that.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Calcutta High Court&#8217;s ruling, read alongside Kerala&#8217;s 2022 judgment, signals that caste-based abuse online <\/span><b>cannot hide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> behind the excuse of a closed investigation.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-law\/sc-st-act-social-media-casteist-slurs-calcutta-hc-10900054\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/kolkata\/casteist-slur-on-social-media-can-invite-penal-action-calcutta-high-court\/articleshow\/134526028.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ToI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SC\/ST Act&#8217;s public-view requirement can extend to social media, with the Calcutta High Court recognising digital spaces in caste-abuse cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":127046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,10597,22,59],"class_list":["post-126982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-mains-articles","tag-sc-st-act","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126982"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127090,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126982\/revisions\/127090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}