.The Madras High Court issued the notice in a PIL filed by P. Gopalan, a dalit activist seeking a mandamus to the Chairman of the State Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee, to convene meetings to review the implementation of the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
According to Rule 16 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules 1995, each state government shall constitute a high power vigilance and monitoring committee, of which the Chief Minister of the State is the Chairman – Administrator, with Ministers and top bureaucrats and police officials as members, besides elected representatives of legislature belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe.
Rule 16 (2) stipulates that the committee shall meet at least twice in a calendar year, in the month of January and July to review the implementation of the provisions of the Act, relief and rehabilitation facilities provided to the victims and other matters connected therewith, prosecution of cases under the Act, role of different officers / agencies responsible for implementing the provisions of the Act and various reports received by the state government.
In his affidavit, the petitioner P. Gopalan has contended that a Committee has been constituted as per the Rules, but the committee has not even convened once in the last four years and has failed to discharge its mandatory legal duty.
The failure of the Chairman of the Committee to comply with the rule to meet twice a year has nullified the very object of the special enactment and emboldened the violators to continue the barbarian practice of untouchability, which is the root cause of atrocities on Dalits, contended the petitioner.
His representations to the Chief Minister have not elicited any response so far, alleged the petitioner.
The Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice MY Eqbal and Justice TS Sivagnanam, after hearing Sathia Chandran, counsel for the petitioner ordered notice to the Administrator-Chairman of the committee, viz. the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, returnable by four weeks.
Besides the constitution of State Level committee, the Rules also mandate the constitution of a District Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee under the Chairmanship of District Collector, MLAs, Group ‘A’ Officers and gazetted officers belonging to SC/ST and five non-official members, to monitor the implementation of the Act, and also that the district level committee should meet once in a quarter.
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