A Dalit group here on Saturday sought a review of the Supreme Court judgment on March 20 diluting the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, while affirming that the court had not taken into account the high acquittal rate in the cases under the statute.

The Centre for Dalit Rights (CDR) said the disposal rate of cases under the Act by the courts was low in recent years, while the atrocities against the Scheduled Caste communities had increased by 5.5% and those against tribal people by 4.7% in 2016. Only 23,408 cases among the 1.44 lakh instances of atrocities came for trial in the courts. CDR chief functionary and Supreme Court lawyer P.L. Mimroth said trial was completed only in 14,615 cases for the Scheduled Castes and 2,895 for the Scheduled Tribes during 2016. “At the end of the year, 89.6% of the cases for the Scheduled Castes and 87.1% for the Scheduled Tribes remained pending trial,” he said. The CDR demanded that the Centre take steps to file a review petition in the Supreme Court.