Caste system is one of the greatest evils in India which acts as major hinderance to the brotherhood and fraternity of the nation. Hence, to help and bring up the depressed classes and stop atrocities against them, various acts and legislations have been made amongst which The Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is main. The Act was enacted in 1989 to safeguard the rights of these classes and bring them justice. The act has undergone various amendments since its enactment but is still controversial as there has been many stances where it has been misused to spread caste hatred and revenge against the upper classes. Hence in this paper the author tries to give a complete history of the Act, its need, its provisions, amendments, loopholes and the Supreme Court judgements which dealt with it. The author has tried to clearly explain both the positives and negatives of the act and how does it affect the depressed classes as well as the upper classes. The author also tried to reason the misuse of the act and the loopholes of related Supreme Court judgements, finally reaching to a conclusion to come up with something to grow the citizens of country together instead of building walls of caste between them.
