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Historic decision of the Allahabad High Court on matters of SC/ST Act, this work will have to be done for settlement

The Allahabad High Court has said in a landmark judgment that if a settlement is reached between the two parties after registering a case under the SC/ST Act, the victim who lodged the complaint will have to deposit the compensation given by the government into the state fund. . Without depositing the compensation, the settlement will not be verified by the concerned court. Depositing the money received from the Social Welfare Department would be mandatory and would be a condition for any settlement between the parties, the court said.

In fact, Justice Rahul Chaturvedi, while hearing a criminal appeal filed by Jhabbu Dubey and three others, said, when there is a settlement between the parties, there is no danger to the victim. In such a situation, there can be no justification for keeping the money given as compensation to the victim. The victim should return that money to the state government. This is the hard earned money of innocent tax payers.

Compensation is available in cases registered under the SC/ST Act
It may be noted that on registering a case under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, financial assistance is provided to the SC/ST victim by the Social Welfare Department of the State Government. The court directed that where there was a settlement between the victim and the accused, the same would be verified by the concerned Sessions Judge, SC/ST Act, taking into account the factors enumerated by the apex court.

After being satisfied, the concerned Sessions Judge shall ask the victim to deposit back the entire amount received from the Social Welfare Department of the State Government within 10 days and then pass a suitable order confirming the agreements.