The mens rea is essential to attract the offence punishable under Section 3(1)(x) of the SC & ST Act, and the utterances made in the name of caste should be with an intention to humiliate or intimidate the persons belonging to scheduled caste or scheduled tribe in a place within public view.

JUDGMENT :

N.S. SHEKHAWAT, J.

1. The present appeal is directed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 07.11.2006 passed by the learned Special Court, Bathinda, whereby the appellant, namely, Rajbir Singh, was convicted for the offence punishable under Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the SC & ST Act’) and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year and to pay a fine of Rs.1,000/- with a default stipulation.

2. The FIR in the present case was got registered by Swaranjit Kaur wife of Baljit Singh Caste Majhabi Sikh resident of village Bhagwanpura. The complainant stated that she was married to Baljit Singh about 13 years ago and had three children. She as well as her husband were doing the labour work. At about 08.00 PM on 22.05.2005, the complainant along with her son Karampal Singh aged about 10 years, were going to fetch milk from the house of Bhikar Singh of their village and when they passed in the street in front of the house of Kaka Singh, Rajbir Singh, appellant, was present under the influence of liquor on the platform. On seeing the complainant, he started abusing her. However, she did not speak anything due to fear and went to fetch milk. While she was returning to her house, appellant Rajbir Singh again met her in front of the house of Kaka Singh and on seeing her, he called the complainant ‘chuhriya’ and said that she along with other ‘dheds’ had been unable to do any harm to them and they will send all Mazhabis out of the village. The complainant tried to make him understand, but appellant Rajbir Singh had raised his shirt up in front of her and gave her filthy abuses. She did not utter even a single word and returned home along with her son. She disclosed the entire incident to her husband Baljit Singh. The matter was reported at about 07:30 PM on 24.05.2005 to the police and a case for the offence under Section 3(1)(x) of the SC & ST Act was registered against the appellant and the investigation was entrusted to the DSP.

3. After completing the investigation, the challan under Section 3(1)(x) of the SC & ST Act was presented against the present appellant, which was committed to the learned Special Court. After taking into consideration the material collected during the course of investigation, the charge under Section 3(1)(x) of the SC & ST Act was ordered to be framed against the present appellant. As per the formal charge-sheet, at about 08.00/8:30 PM on 22.05.2005, the present appellant had intentionally insulted the complainant, a member of schedule caste by calling her “chuhriya” and “dhed” and intimidated her. The appellant pleaded innocence and claimed trial.

4. To prove the charge, the prosecution examined four witnesses. The complainant Swaranjit Kaur was examined as PW-1, who supported the case of the prosecution, as mentioned in the FIR. She stated that while she was returning back after fetching milk, Rajbir Singh met her near the house of Kaka Singh. Rajbir Singh called her “chuhri” “dhedni” and stated that she should work at his house for cleaning rubbish and dung of the cattle heads, but she refused to oblige. Appellant Rajbir Singh was under the influence of liquor at that time. She asked the accused to remain silent but he uttered lot of words and then he raised his shirt up. In her cross-examination, she admitted that she had worked for four years in the village for cleaning dung of cattle heads, but never worked at the house of accused. She admitted that when she was again returning after fetching milk, residential houses were situated around the place where Rajbir, accused met her but no person gathered at the spot of occurrence. She further feigned ignorance as to how much land of panchayat was under their possession in the village Bhagwanpura. She did not know as to since when the dispute of land was going on in the village. She did not know about the di