Supreme Court rules private casteist slurs are not SC/ST Act offences

The Supreme Court of India has ruled that casteist slurs uttered in a private, enclosed space do not constitute an offence under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta set aside an Allahabad High Court order that had previously refused to quash proceedings against a school manager.

The case originated from an incident where a complainant alleged that the school manager and staff assaulted him and used caste-based abuses following a quarrel involving the complainant's son. The manager challenged the proceedings, arguing that the alleged verbal abuse occurred inside an enclosed room without windows or public access.

Under Sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(s) of the SC/ST Act, it is a punishable offence to intentionally insult or abuse a member of these communities in a place within public view. The Court held that because the alleged utterances were made in a private setting with no public access, they did not satisfy the essential statutory requirement of being in public view.