Bridging the Gap between Law and Practice: Implementation of the SC/ST (PoA) Act in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh

Abstract

This paper critically analyzes how the PoA Act is effective in bringing justice to the marginalized communities. Although the Act has powerful legal provisions, there are some challenges that have been observed to be persistent, including slow investigations, low conviction rates, lack of awareness, and lack of victim rehabilitation, which are still hindering its effects. The research design is a descriptive research design that incorporates both the primary (interviews and surveys of victims, police and legal workers) and secondary research (NCRB statistics, governmental reports and even the recommending decisions of judges). The comparative analysis of the Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh states shows the strong differences between the countries: in the former, the reporting and awareness are higher, and in the latter, the process of prosecution is more efficient, and the compensation measures towards the victim are somewhat better. The results point to the obstacles that are systemic among the institutions of enforcement and the dire need of capacity building, reforming of the judiciary and better relations in the process of coordination between legal and administrative departments. The research finds that the only way to close the gap between the law intention and its ground-level execution is to not only provide efficiency when it comes to the procedure, but also to administer a socio-legal devotion to equality and justice.