SC calls...

Specifically, it has asked the police to register cases under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (dealing with hate speech) against those involved in such attacks and lynchings. It has also directed day-to-day hearings, fast-track courts, and stringent punishment for vigilantes. States have also been asked to take tough action against police officers who do not do enough to prevent such attacks or do not act against the criminals. Most importantly, it has asked for a separate law.

The government’s position, expressed in court by additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta, was that existing laws were adequate to deal with such attacks. The court thought otherwise.

“A special law in this field would instil a sense of fear for law amongst people who involve themselves in such kinds of activities,” the bench said.

The court has given four weeks to the central government and states to implement its order and has asked them to file compliance reports.

“Rising intolerance and growing polarisation expressed through spate of incidents of mob violence cannot be permitted to become the normal way of life or the normal state of law and order in the country,” said the court, describing the lynching incidents as a “sweeping phenomenon”.

Unity in diversity is the strength of our nation and the most potent weapon in India’s armoury which binds different and varied kinds of people in the solemn thread of humanity, the court said, adding “we must shun schismatic tendencies”.