The SC was hearing petitions on cow vigilantism, but the verdict comes as India grapples with another form of mob violence, triggered by a WhatsApp rumour.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday said Parliament must bring a law that instils fear in perpetrators of mob violence, setting a four-week deadline for the Centre and states to issue guidelines on curbing “mobocracy”.
The court was hearing a batch of pleas filed by social activist Tehseen Poonawala and Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi in the wake of a spate of lynchings by self-styled cow vigilantes.
The judgment is also expected to help curb another form of mob violence that has emerged since — the attacks on strangers suspected to be child-lifters on the basis of a viral WhatsApp rumour.
“The people have grown numb and they must be protected from mobocracy,” a bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said. “Horrendous acts of violence must be curbed.”
“This is still a society that champions civil rights and it is the duty of the state to ensure maintenance of law and order, pluralistic social fabric and rule of law,” the bench added.
Earlier, the bench had laid the onus of curbing mob violence squarely on the states, and urged their administrations as well as the Centre to take strong measures to curb cow vigilantism, saying it was their duty to protect people.
‘No vigilante group has any space in the country’
During the course of the hearings, the Centre had assured the apex court that it did not support cow vigilantism, and argued that it was the responsibility of states to curb violence in their jurisdiction.
“…The central government does not have any role in it. However, it is of the view that no vigilante group has any space in the country as per procedures of law,” Ranjit Kumar, who represented the Centre as the solicitor general at the time, had said.
Cow vigilantism, which has seen scores of cattle traders, mostly Muslim, lynched, has been condemned by the political class too.
In 2017, the PM had used his first ever town hall to make a scathing attack, saying: “Most of these people are anti-social elements hiding behind the mask of gau rakshaks.”
Former President Pranab Mukherjee had weighed in too. “We have to pause and reflect when mob frenzy becomes uncontrollable,” he said.