Mysuru: After the Supreme Court (SC) decided to stay its Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe order, State Cabinet Minister and prominent Dalit leader H C Mahadevappa sought union government’s intervention to resolve the tangle.

Addressing media at his residence, Mahadevappa said the Dalit communities were deeply hurt by the SC verdict dated March 20 and its refusal to stay the order .

“At one end Prime Minister Modi says that because of Ambedkar, he could become the prime minister of the country. Even BJP national president tweeted many times over the issue. In reality, tweets are not going to assuage the feelings of Dalits”, Mahadevappa said.

PM should call for special Lok Sabha session and the issue has to be settled outside the court, Mahadevappa opined.

The Supreme Court yesterday said its March 20 judgement, banning immediate arrest of a person accused of insulting or injuring a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe member, is meant to protect innocents from arbitrary arrest and not an affront to Dalit rights.

More than 10 people have died across India after violence broke out against SC order.

“Our judgement implements what is said in the Constitution. We are conscious of the rights of the underprivileged and place them at the highest pedestal but at the same time, an innocent person cannot be falsely implicated and arrested without proper verification. We have not stopped the implementation of the Act. Does the Act mandate the arrest of innocent persons? Our judgement is not against the Act”, Justice Goel had said in defence of the SC judgement. He called the judgement a “balance” between Dalit rights and right of an innocent against arrest in a false case.