00:00Caste is everywhere in India, in politics, at workplace, on campus and even in courtrooms.
00:07And now again, India's tryst with Caste continues.
00:10Months after the UGC Rao, where notified anti-discrimination rules trigger a heated debate,
00:16another campus death has once again broadcast to the centre of the conversation.
00:22After 20-year-old Sahil Vakode's suicide at IIT Bombay,
00:27his parents have alleged institutional harassment.
00:30They've alleged caste-based discrimination.
00:32The police have registered a case of abetment to suicide.
00:35They've invoked the SCSD Prevention of Atrocities Act.
00:39And that brings us to the law at the heart of this entire debate, a law created to protect.
00:45But one that has over the years also triggered a fierce debate over misuse, due process and individual liberty.
00:53So I'll begin at the basics.
00:54What is the SCSD Act?
00:56Enacted in 1989, the SCSD Act was created to protect scheduled castes and scheduled tribes from caste-based atrocities,
01:04including humiliation, abuse, violence, exploitation and denial of rights.
01:11And the law comes with stringent provisions.
01:14Section 18 bars anticipatory bail, so non-bailable offence.
01:18Section 18a says no preliminary inquiry is even required before the registration of an FIR.
01:23No prior approval is required for arrest, wherever arrest is deemed necessary.
01:28The idea is simple.
01:30To ensure that victims of caste atrocities are not left waiting for justice.
01:34So the moment they file a complaint, FIR has to be registered.
01:36But here's where the controversy begins.
01:39What if the allegation itself is false?
01:43What if a caste-related provision is added to an ordinary dispute?
01:48What if an FIR is registered, but the allegation eventually doesn't survive judicial scrutiny?
01:54Because by then, the consequences of the case may have already begun.
01:58The person in question could be arrested.
02:00And this isn't, mind you, just a theoretical argument.
02:03In 2018, the Supreme Court, while dealing with concerns over arbitrary arrests, introduced safeguards in cases under the Act.
02:12But as expected, the judgment triggered a major political fight and backlash.
02:17The Modi government amended the law, restoring those very stringent provisions.
02:21And in 2020, the Supreme Court upheld Dosam Ben Menso, back to square one.
02:27But the misused debate has refused to disappear.
02:30Take the case of Vishnu Tiwari.
02:33In 2000, he was convicted in a rape case that also involved provisions of the SESD Act.
02:39He spent 20 years in prison.
02:41He was innocent.
02:43In 2021, the Allahabad High Court acquitted him, finding that the prosecution evidence didn't sustain the conviction.
02:50But 20 years of his life, gone just like that.
02:54And that's the danger critics of the law point to.
02:57Even if a person is eventually acquitted, what undoes the years lost before that acquittal because of the exploitation of
03:05this law?
03:05No one can bring back that time.
03:08The Rohit Vemula case raised another set of questions.
03:11Back in 2021, the invocation of the SESD Act in Rohit's case also became a major flashpoint.
03:17In its closure report, the Telangana police questioned his caste status and concluded that the evidence did not establish caste
03:26-based institutional discrimination as the cause of his suicide.
03:29It later sparked immense, intense nationwide outrage and renewed demands for a dedicated Rohit Vemula Act to protect marginalized students.
03:39And then there are cases where courts themselves have flagged problems with the way the Act was invoked.
03:45In 2025, the Supreme Court, while dealing with jharkand lawyer Virendra Singh's case, described the matter as gross misuse of
03:53the SESD Act and granted him relief, noting that the FIR didn't attribute a specific role to him at all.
03:58In January this year, the Karnataka High Court quashed an FIR against Bengaluru North University Vice Chancellor, which included charges
04:06again under the SESD Act.
04:09The case arose from a dispute involving a part-time lecturer and the university.
04:14And so again, SESD brought in.
04:17The High Court found serious legal and procedural flaws in the way the criminal case had been initiated and quashed
04:24the FIR.
04:24Another case, another question.
04:27When does a personal dispute become an atrocity issue?
04:31There's another side to this entire debate as well.
04:33And we'll get you the numbers.
04:35In 2024, the National Crime Records Bureau data recorded 55,685 cases involving crimes against scheduled castes.
04:459,961 involving crimes against scheduled tribe.
04:49All this under the SESD Act.
04:50The conviction rate in 2024 stood at 33.9% for SESD-related cases.
04:5733.2% for SESD-related cases.
05:00Thousands of cases remained pending investigation underway.
05:05So what do these numbers actually tell us?
05:08Not that every case is false and certainly not that every case represents a proven atrocity.
05:13They tell us something else.
05:15That there's a huge gap between an allegation being registered, an investigation being completed and a charge sheet being filed.
05:23And the court finally deciding guilt.
05:26That timeline is a long one.
05:28There's another contentious part too.
05:31Compensation.
05:32Under the SESD rules, victims are entitled to monetary relief depending on the nature of the offense.
05:38And crucially, that relief doesn't necessarily wait for conviction.
05:42Under the standard payment structure, 25% can be released at the FIR stage.
05:48Another 50% when the charge sheet is filed.
05:51The remaining 25% on conviction.
05:55So in many cases, 75% of the prescribed relief can become payable before the trial has been concluded.
06:01And that is where another question enters the misuse debate.
06:07What happens when the case eventually collapses?
06:10The money may already have been released.
06:12The accused may have spent years fighting the case.
06:15Now the existence of this compensation system doesn't prove that people file false cases for money.
06:20Its purpose is to give immediate support compensation to those struggling genuine victims.
06:25But there is a question.
06:27How do you ensure immediate relief for a genuine victim without creating a system that can be exploited by a
06:33false complaint as well?
06:35And that is essentially the contradiction at the heart of the SESD Act debate.
06:40It was created because caste discrimination is real.
06:43Caste violence is real.
06:44Caste humiliation is real.
06:46And a weak law can leave victims without protection.
06:50A stringent law, however, also has to operate within the principles of fair investigation and due process.
06:57That's where the debate lies.
