All proceedings under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act must be video recorded, the Bombay High Court ruled on Wednesday. This will apply to judicial proceedings, including hearing of a bail application, a division bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice S V Kotwal said.
“It would be necessary to video-record any proceedings related to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act even though the proceedings are held in open court. The objective to be achieved is effective implementation of the Amended chapter…of the Atrocities Act which is meant to protect the rights of victims and witnesses,” the court said. It said Section 15A (10) of the Act, which states that all proceedings relating to offences under the Act shall be video recorded, is mandatory.
In 2019, the issue of whether all proceedings include bail hearings under this section, was raised during the hearing of the bail applications of doctors Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Mehare and Ankita Khandelwal, who are accused of abetting the suicide of their junior Dr Payal Tadvi.
“In many cases, the victims may not be fully aware of the legal procedures or their implications and thus in that case the video recording would facilitate all those who can help the victim to understand the nature of proceedings and details of the facts and legal aspects of these cases,” the court said. It said the Act says that it is the duty of the state government to provide these facilities, as of today all courts are not equipped with the facility of videorecording.