SC asks States to update it on steps taken to check mob lynching, cow vigilantism
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked various state governments to apprise it in six weeks on the action taken in incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai, Aravind Kumar and Sandeep Mehta posted for hearing after six weeks a plea filed by a women’s organisation seeking directions to States to take immediate action in consonance with a 2018 verdict of the apex court to eectively deal with incidents of lynching and mob violence against Muslims by cow vigilantes.
“We find that most of the States have not filed their reply a¤davits to the writ petition giving instances of mob lynching. It was expected of the States to at least respond to what action has been taken in such cases. We grant six weeks’ time to the states who have not filed their replies and also give details of steps taken by them in such cases,” the Bench ordered.
NFIW PLEA
The top court was hearing a plea filed by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), an organisation linked to the Communist Party of India in which notices were issued last year to the Centre and the DGPs of Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana seeking their responses to the plea.
During the hearing, advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for the petitioner organisation, said that in Madhya Pradesh there was an incident of alleged mob-lynching but the FIR was registered for cow slaughter against the victims.
Pasha submitted, “If the state is to deny the incident of mob lynching, then how can 2018 verdict in Tehseen Poonawalla case will be followed.” In the Poonawalla case, the top court has issued a slew of directions to States to check incidents of cow vigilantism and mob lynching.
NO FIR
The Bench questioned the counsel appearing for the Madhya Pradesh government, as how FIR for cow slaughter was registered without chemical analysis of the meat and why no FIR was registered against those involved in the scu¨e.
“Are you trying to save someone? How can you register FIR for cow slaughter without even chemical analysis,” the bench told the counsel for Madhya Pradesh and asked him to give details of the incident.
Pasha pointed out that same thing happened in Haryana where a case for transporting beef was registered but not mob lynching.
“The states are denying that there were any incident of mob lynching and FIRs are being registered for cow slaughter against the victims. Only two States Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have filed their a¤davit on incidents pointed out in the writ petition and interlocutory applications” he submitted.