JUDGMENT

Anoop Chitkara, J. - All the petitions mentioned above raise interlinked propositions of law and are taken up together. The petitioners on being arraigned as accused of commission of offences punishable under the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, after now called as 'SCSTPOA,' have come up under section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, in short 'CrPC,' seeking permission to surrender before this Court, and simultaneously seeking release on ad-interim bail. Given the propositions of law involved, instead of accepting surrender, in the interim, the Court stayed the arrests subject to their joining the investigation.

Introduction:

2. Within 895 days of Independence, We, the people of India, abolished the millennia-old evil practice of untouchability through fundamental right guaranteed under Article 17 of India's Constitution by declaring that "Untouchability" is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of "Untouchability" shall be an offence punishable in accordance with the law. Consequently, the Parliament enacted the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955. Later on,