Justice Ravindra S Bhat highlights disproportionate impact of criminal justice system on Denotified Tribes

New Delhi [India], August 31 : The Supreme Court judge Justice Ravindra S Bhat on Wednesday highlighted various issues relating to the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system on the Denotified Tribes (DNT).
Highlighting these issues, Justice Ravindra S Bhat said, "States need to take active measures to mitigate these individuals who have no resources in defending themselves in the long drawn out legal processes to secure their release at unaffordable costs."
Justice Bhat said that there is a perception perpetuated in the society that alcoholism is a character trait associated with certain tribes and fails to take into account that it is a consequence of the actions of that very society which condemns it.
"The disproportionate number of arrests of the people who produce, consume or often work for others in the country make liquor segment and the consequent application of excise laws with harsh penal results is a reality and states need to take active measures to mitigate these individuals who have no resources in defending themselves in long drawn out legal processes to secure their release at unaffordable costs," Justice Bhat said.
"These communities are doomed into a cyclical punishment once they are picked up for the first time," Justice Bhat said.
The justice's remark came during a lecture to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the repeal of the draconian Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 (CTA) on August 31.
The lecture was organised by the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project (CPA Project) on 'Denotified Tribes and The Criminal Justice System'. August 31 is celebrated as Vimukta Diwas marking the denotification of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes as 'criminal tribes' by the repeal of CTA in 1952 which notified numerous nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes as 'born criminals.
'Vimukta' denotes the freedom of tribal communities from the CTA.
The top court judge further spoke on the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system on the Denotified Tribes (DNT) with a focus on the historical context that has shaped the present scenario of casteist stereotypes, societal attitudes, police discretion and enactment of special laws which affect the livelihood of DNT communities.
In his lecture, Bhat said, "Merely a repeal of the legislation without concerted efforts to spread awareness within the state administration or society at large which meant that they remain communities that society looks at with suspicion."
He added that owing to public pressure, habitual offenders legislations were enacted soon thereafter in several states. "These acts were based on the logic that someone who commits repeated offences is one who has an inherent tendency or propensity for crime and is thus dangerous to the society," Justice Bhat said.
"These notions have certainly undergone dramatic change through judicial decisions of Courts which demonstrates a shift that crime and criminals are a product of societal circumstances...However, this shift of approach has failed to percolate to the law enforcement personnel who rely on the concept of habitual offenders to routinely persecute already vulnerable and stigmatized DNT communities. For these reasons these communities fail to see any material changes in their own lives after the repeal of CTA," he added.
While referring to the laws that bolster the category of habitual offenders, Justice Bhat cited the example of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA).
"The traditional occupations followed by the members of DNT communities are fast vanishing. This is largely in part also a consequence of legislation which may be rooted in social welfare but have completely opposite results for these communities," he remarked.
"Twenty years after the repeal of CTA the long-awaited WPA was passed in 1972. While the importance of preservation of our rich wildlife can never be undermined, the Act was criticised for expecting tribal communities, dependent on hunting, to change centuries-old livelihood practices overnight... (Similar) Analogies are also formed in the Forest Conservation Act 1980 and the Environment Protection Act 1986. The outcome of these legislations without effective alternatives to dependent tribal communities is the repeated violation of the law-making members of these communities vulnerable to the classification as habitual offenders," he said.
He further remarked on the policing of Mahua brewed by DNT communities for their personal consumption and noted, "Overdependence on informants or 'mukhbirs' provides a convenient way to exercise discretion to law enforcement agencies. There are instances where stock witnesses to search and seizure operations are themselves members of targeted tribes with FIRs registered against them, involved in such exercises for favouring their release."
Concluding the lecture, he said, "When people in casual derogatory statements attribute commission of a crime to DNT communities to deflect attention from glaring inefficiency of governance the cascading effect is inevitable."
The Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project (CPA Project) is an intervention focused on the decriminalisation of certain communities by the police and the criminal justice system and on decarceration.
The project is a grassroots litigation and a research-based initiative in Bhopal, that is currently working in specific locations, and with particular communities across Madhya Pradesh. These communities include those previously officially criminalised under colonial laws, now classified as Denotified Tribal (DNT) Communities as well as other communities that are similarly persecuted and stigmatised by the criminal justice system.