The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 came into force on

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, 30 January 1990. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (Act No. 33 of 1989) received the President's assent on 11 September 1989, but it was brought into force by government notification only on 30 January 1990. The date a law is passed/assented and the date it commences are different, and here the commencement date is 30 January 1990.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Not the notified commencement date; no provision of the Act links its coming-into-force to 1 January 1990.  (c) This is the date the Act received the President's assent (its enactment date), not the date it was brought into force.  (d) Has no bearing on the Act; it is neither the assent date nor the commencement date.

Concept: A statute's 'enactment' (the date it receives assent) and its 'commencement' (the date it comes into force) can differ — legislatures often leave it to the government to notify the enforcement date. The Atrocities Act was assented on 11 September 1989 but enforced from 30 January 1990. Its implementing SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules followed in 1995.

State PCS 2019 Q78 — Indian Polity PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q78 — Indian Polity PYQ with Answer