ORDER

This court is called upon to resolve an apparent incongruity in the matter of grant of anticipatory bail to those alleged to have committed offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (for short 'the SC/ST Act'). When the said statute provides an absolute prohibition on the applicability of the provisions of section 438 of Cr.P.C, the Supreme Court had, in Prathvi Raj Chauhan v. Union of India and Others [(2020) 4 SCC 727] observed that if the complaint does not make out a prima facie case for applicability of the provisions of the SC/ST Act, the bar created by section 18 and section 18A(1), shall not apply. The difficulty arises as to the forum where the absence of prima facie case can be agitated. The difficulty is compounded by the observations in the aforenoted judgment coupled with the creation of Special Courts and the conferment of appellate jurisdiction on the High Court under sections 14 and 14A of the SC/ST Act.

2. Petitioners in these four cases are alleged to have committed offences punishable under the SC/ST Act. Petitioners in B.A No. 6597/2021 and B. A No. 1242/2022 have invoked the jurisdiction of this Court und