No Offence made out unless Dead-Body was detained only due to caste in accordance with SC/ST Act

Recently in an order in the case of Mr. Indrajit Dilip Patil & Ors. v. The State of Maharashtra & Anr., Bombay High Court granted anticipatory bail to the employees of a hospital who were detained under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The hospital employees did not hand over the dead body to the complainants, for almost ten hours from the time of death, on the grounds that the medical bills were not paid. However, the complainant accused the hospital administration of detaining the person’s dead body because the person belonged to a scheduled caste. A FIR was filed by the complainants under Sections 406, 420, 188, 297 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 3(1)(r), 3(1)(s) of the SC/ST Act of 1989 against appellants/hospital employees on grounds that hospital administration caused humiliation to complainant and his family as they belonged to scheduled caste and asked for undue additional payment of hospital fees.

It was contended by the complainants that the Fundamental right of the dead person was violated under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, 1950. The counsel for the appellants argued that essentially, the dispute arose between the complainant and the hospital administration because of the pending hospital bill and for the reason that family members were insisting to take the dead body against the COVID protocol.

The court while granting anticipatory bail observed that, clearly the detention of the body was not based on the grounds of the person belonging to the scheduled caste. Instead, it was because the family had not paid the medical bills and was insisting on taking the corpse against the COVID protocol. The court further stated that detaining the body itself did not constitute an offence under the SC/ST Act, unless the reason for detaining the body was based on the caste factor, which was not the case here.