NEW DELHI: Despite the Supreme Court issuing exhaustive guidelines to curb mob lynching last year, as many as 10 states are yet to follow the same and was on Friday slapped with a notice seeking their response. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi sought the Centre and 10 states’ response on the allegation that it has not implemented a slew of directions issued by the court last year to curb mob lynching and violence.
The 10 states that were asked to respond were Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. The order came on a plea filed by Anti-Corruption Council of India Trust and was represented by senior advocate Anukul Chandra Pradhan, which said that while incidents of lynching are on the rise, the government has not taken any steps to implement the directions of the apex court aimed at tackling the menace.
The trust said a slew of directions passed on July 17, 2018 by the apex court to the government to provide preventive, remedial and punitive measures to deal with offences such as mob violence have not been implemented. The directions were passed after a PIL was filed by activist Tehseen Poonawala, who had brought the issue of rising incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism to the apex court’s notice.
The apex court had said there was a need to enact a special law as it would instill a sense of fear amongst those was involved in mob lynching. It had said it was the duty of state governments to ensure law and order in the society, besides ensuring that the rule of law prevailed.
In September 2018, the SC asked all states and the Centre to comply with its order on mob lynching and cow vigilantism. It had noted that mobocracy cannot be allowed in a democracy. Following the SC directions, the Manipur government enacted a special law to tackle mob lynching, while Madhya Pradesh has approved a law against cow vigilantism, but it hasn’t been passed.