Apex court says “elaborate judgment” required to check mob lynchings
A Supreme Court bench on July 3 said nobody can take law into their hands and “an elaborate judgment is required” to prevent the increasing incidents of mob lynching over the issue of cow vigilantism
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 3 reserved its verdict on pleas seeking directions to formulate guidelines to curb increasing instances of mob lynchings and cow vigilantism, saying no one can take law into their hands and the onus was on state governments to prevent such incidents.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said mob lynching and cow vigilantism was a law and order issue and each state has to be responsible.
During the hearing, the bench observed that the instances of vigilantism was actually mob violence, which is a crime. “Frame a scheme under Article 256 to deal with the mob violence issues”, legal news website Live Law India reported CJI Mishra as saying to the Centre. Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha responded that the Centre was alive to the situation and trying to deal with it. He that a scheme was unnecessary and the only concern is how to control and prevent the incidents.
Live Law India reported the apex court as saying “an elaborate judgment is required” to prevent the incidents of mob lynching over the issue of cow vigilantism. “ It is the duty of the court to prevent such incidents. It is also the obligation of states to prevent such incidents. For which, an elaborate judgement is required,” Live Law quoted the SC as saying.
Senior advocate Indira Jaisingh appearing for petitioner Tushar Gandhi argued that despite the apex court order to appoint Nodal Officers, incidents of mob lynching have occurred 60 km away from Delhi, in Uttar Pradesh. Jaisingh added that the Central Govt had to make sure that the statute was compiled with
On September 6 last year, the apex court had asked all the states to take stern measures to stop violence in the name of cow protection, including appointing of senior police officers as nodal officer in every district within a week and acting promptly to check cow vigilantes from behaving like they are "law unto themselves".
The apex court had sought response from Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments on a plea seeking contempt action for not following its order to take stern steps to stop violence in the name of cow vigilantism.
The contempt petition has been filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, saying the three states have not complied with the top court order of September 6 last year.
With PTI inputs.
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