The Rajasthan High Court has taken a serious view of the State government’s failure to implement a contingency plan under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules, 1995, prepared by a Drafting Committee in 2017. The plan has neither seen the light of the day, nor has its notification been scheduled anytime soon.
A non-government organisation, Dalit Manavadhikar Kendra Samiti (DMKS), had also submitted a draft contingency plan to the State government in 2017 with the provisions for relief and rehabilitation, additional financial assistance to the victims of caste-based violence, protection of witnesses and monitoring mechanism for helping out the victims.
Hearing a public interest writ petition moved by the DMKS, a Division Bench of the High Court observed in its order passed last week that the very purpose of framing the contingency plan for SC and ST communities would be frustrated if it was delayed in finalisation and implementation.
