The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre to file by October 26 its response to a batch of petitions challenging the new amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, PTI reported.

A bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan gave Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, a week’s time to file the reply. It also posted the matter for further hearing on November 20.

Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to examine the petitions challenging the amendment but declined to stay the legislation without hearing the government’s view.

The amendment bill passed by Parliament in August reversed the Supreme Court’s order in March that had diluted the act’s provisions. The court had said public servants cannot be arrested immediately after a complaint is filed against them under the atrocities law. The amendments rule out any provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in spite of a court order. No preliminary inquiry will be needed to register a criminal case and an arrest under this law would not be subject to any approval.

At least 11 people died and hundreds were detained during the protests against the Supreme Court order in April.

The petitions claim that the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha had arbitrarily decided to amend the law and restored the earlier provisions in a manner wherein an innocent person cannot avail the right to anticipatory bail. Lead petitioner Prathvi Raj Chauhan sought an immediate stay on the act’s implementation till the time his plea is being heard by the court. He said that the government brought in amendments without removing the defects and overruled the court’s verdict.

One of the petitions claimed that the structure of the act violates “basic principles of liberty and accountability” after the amendments.

According to the plea, the Supreme Court cannot remain a “mute spectator to the abuse of law” as “we are living in a civilised society and there were many growing instances of misuse of this act”. It claimed that the new law could be used to harass citizens by arresting them on the basis of mere allegations.

However, the court on Monday refused to entertain before the final hearing the plea that sought monitoring the act’s implementation, reported Live Law. Such an action would be tantamount to an application for reserving a seat in a school for an unborn child, the court observed.

Last month, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that he will issue a directive to not misuse the amended act, saying that nobody is to be arrested under the act without an investigation. This move, contrary to the amended legislation, was criticised by several Bharatiya Janata Party MPs as well as members of the National Democratic Alliance government.