Frivolous cases under SC/ST Act: K'taka HC orders recovery of Rs.1.5 lakh aid provided to litigant

Taking exception to a litigant who had filed three separate complaints against a person under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the same incident and also received Rs 3.5 lakh from the Social Welfare Department to fight these cases, the High Court of Karnataka directed that the money be recovered from the complainant.

Justice M Nagaprasanna, in his judgment said, “It is for this reason that genuine cases of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who would actually suffer abuses, are lost in the multitude of such frivolous cases. Haystack of frivolous cases have mushroomed to a large extent that searching a genuine case in the haystack has become like searching for a needle in a haystack, as most the cases are in abuse and misuse of the process of law, like the kind in hand.” .