Laws should be caste neutral, says SC; reserves verdict on Centre's review plea

Laws in the country should be caste neutral and uniform, the Supreme Court said Wednesday.

"Laws in the country should be uniform and cannot be for general category or SC/ST category," the top court said while reserving its verdict on the Centre's petition seeking review of its March 20, 2018 judgement which had virtually diluted provisions of arrest under the SC/ST Act.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and U U Lalit, after hearing the submissions of Attorney General K K Venugopal appearing for Centre, said it is reserving the verdict.

At the outset, Venugopal said the whole March verdict was "problematic" and it should be reviewed by the court.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the parties supporting the last year verdict, said that the Centre's review has become infructuous as Parliament has already passed the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018 to neutralize the effects of the judgement.

He sought stay of the Amendment ...