Bail in SC/ST Act Cases: Appeals Under Section 14A Before the Patna High Court

An appeal, not a bail application

Under Section 14A of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, an appeal lies to the High Court against any judgment, sentence or order of a Special Court or Exclusive Special Court, other than an interlocutory order. Section 14A(2) expressly provides an appeal against an order granting or refusing bail. So when a Special Court refuses bail in an SC/ST Act case, the remedy before the Patna High Court is a criminal appeal, not a fresh bail application.

Time limit

The appeal must be filed within ninety days of the order. The High Court may entertain it after ninety days on sufficient cause, but not after one hundred and eighty days.

Notice to the victim

Section 15A(3) gives the victim or their dependant the right to reasonable, accurate and timely notice of court proceedings, including bail proceedings, and Section 15A(5) the right to be heard. The informant must therefore be served, and the court will not ordinarily decide the appeal without proof of service.

Anticipatory bail and Section 18A

Section 18 bars anticipatory bail in cases under the Act, and Section 18A, added in 2018, makes clear that no preliminary inquiry is needed before an FIR. In Prathvi Raj Chauhan v. Union of India (2020), the Supreme Court upheld Section 18A but held that a court may grant anticipatory bail where the complaint does not make out a prima facie case under the Act.

What the court examines

• Whether the allegations disclose an offence under the Act at all
• Whether the act was done because the victim belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, where the provision requires it
• Whether the incident occurred within public view, where the offence requires it, as discussed in Hitesh Verma v. State of Uttarakhand (2020)
• The role attributed to the appellant, the injury report and the period in custody