Section 18 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 deals with:

Section 18 provides that "nothing in section 438 of the Code shall apply" to any case involving the arrest of a person accused of an offence under the Act, so anticipatory bail is excluded. Probation is excluded by section 19, preventive action by the law and order machinery is section 17, and Special Public Prosecutors are appointed under section 15. The anticipatory-bail bar does not apply where the complaint discloses no prima facie offence under the Act, as held in Prathvi Raj Chauhan v Union of India (2020).