JUDGMENT

Dilip B Bhosale, C.J.—The order of reference dated 21 December 2017 in Satyendra & Another Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh [Criminal Misc. Bail Application No. 38755 of 2017], passed by a learned Single Judge, while dealing with three Criminal Misc. Bail Applications and a Criminal Appeal (Defective), takes a divergent view from the one expressed by another learned Single Judge in Janardan Pandey vs State of Uttar Pradesh (Criminal Appeal No.2943 of 2017) and Rohit vs State of Uttar Pradesh (Criminal Appeal Defective No.523 of 2017). In all these cases, the provisions of Section 14A of the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2015 (for short “the Amending Act”) fell for consideration. Apart from the divergent opinions expressed in the above cases, on the questions centering around Section 14A of the Amending Act, we have also taken suo moto cognizance of the issues arising therefrom in Criminal PIL No. 8 of 2018. We had accordingly clubbed the aforementioned two matters together.

2. In the meanwhile Sri Vishnu Bihari Tiwari, a practicing Advocate of this Court preferred Criminal Writ-Public Interest Litigation No. - 11 of 2018 challenging