Constitutional Protection to Weaker Section of Society of India: A Socio Legal Study

Abstract

In democratic countries, laws are based on the principle of “equal protection of law and equality before law.” India is a complex society. Its main feature is a caste-ridden society. The society is split up on the basis of caste, religion, wealth, or occupation. This practice taking place since time immemorial. Society is polluted by many evil social practices like untouchability. There is a certain upper caste who believe some groups of lower caste as untouchable and they commit atrocities based on caste on those lower strata people of society. The rays of hope to eradicate this social evil, we have the measures that provided in our Constitution. In order to treat everyone equally, the constitution of India added a provision regarding the abolishment of untouchability. Further, it is the duty of the state and its agencies to safeguard the socio-economic interest of these weaker communities of society who are vulnerable to atrocities and exploitation by those constituting strong strata of society. The weaker section of society is referred to as a tribal population including scheduled caste and scheduled tribes specifically. Even after having such strong constitutional measures of protection, people of weaker sections of society are facing cruelty in society's so-called free India. In order to uplift them in society or to give them equal protection, the parliament has enacted the law known as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989. This paper will deal with the different laws providing measures of protection from exploitation and atrocities to people of Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribes. It would also examine Whether this law has achieved the intended objective for which it was enacted. Further, the focus of the paper would be to analyze the rationality of Amendment Act 2018 with special reference to sec 18A of the Act which authorizes the automatic arrest of the accused without any initial investigation or inquiry of the offence.