In a recent judgment, Shajan Skaria v. The State of Kerala, the Supreme Court ruled that ‘mere fact that the person subjected to insult or intimidation belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe’ is not sufficient to warrant an offence under section 3(1) (r) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989, ‘unless it was the intention of the accused to subject the concerned person to caste-based humiliation’.