SC notices to Centre, five states over cow vigilantes
REITERATION Cong leader seeks cow protection groups to be declared illegal
The Supreme Court asked the central government and five BJP-ruled states on Friday to respond within three weeks to a petition seeking a ban on cow protection groups amid growing outrage against the vigilantes accused of widespread violence and the killing of a dairy farmer in Alwar, Rajasthan.
The top court issued notices to Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan, where a Muslim man was lynched allegedly by cow vigilantes on a highway this week. Response was also sought from Congress-ruled Karnataka.
The petition was filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, who called for cow protection groups to be declared illegal and said there has been a spike in instances of cow vigilantism. The next date of hearing is May 3.
This comes days after the vigilantes – called gau rakshaks – thrashed five men on the JaipurDelhi highway, leading to death of one, called Pehlu Khan, in hospital. The men had valid permits for transport of cows and calves. Earlier this week, Gujarat made cow slaughter punishable by life imprisonment. This was the latest in a string of cow-related violence but various state governments have defended the action on the grounds of the sentiment attached to the animal, considered holy by many Hindus.
These groups became active after the BJP-led government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over at the Centre. They claim to protect cows from being taken to slaughterhouses. Critics, however, accuse these vigilante groups of targeting people, mostly from the Muslim and Dalit community.
Poonawalla said violence committed by these ‘gau raksha’ groups have reached such proportions that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi called them out as people who were “destroying the society”.
The plea alleged that these groups were committing atrocities against Dalits and minorities in the name of protection of cows and they needed to be “regulated and banned in the interest of social harmony, public morality and law and order in the country”.
It had also sought a direction to remove alleged “violent content” uploaded on social media and hosted by the cow protection groups.
The plea sought to declare as “unconstitutional” section 12 of the Gujarat Animal Prevention Act, 1954, Section 13 of Maharashtra Animal Prevention Act, 1976, and Section 15 of Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964, which provides for protection to persons acting in good faith under the Act or rules.