Supreme Court (File photo for representation/PTI)
Taking a strong stand over several incidents of mob lynchings in the country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday urged Parliament to create a separate law to deal with cases of mob violence. Stating that no citizen can take law into his hands nor become law unto himself, the top court said that it is the duty of state to ensure maintenance of law and order so as to protect secular ethos and prevent 'mobocracy'.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud also passed a slew of directions to be implemented by both state and central governments to ensure that law and order is maintained by preventing people from taking law into their hands. The court will hear the matter next on August 28.
The Supreme Court has been hearing pleas seeking directions to formulate guidelines to curb mob violence. During the hearing last week, the apex court had observed that the instances of vigilantism were actually mob violence, which is a crime and put the onus on states to check such incidents.
On September 6 last year, the apex court had asked all the states to take stern measures to stop violence in the name of cow protection, including appointing of senior police officers as nodal officer in every district within a week and acting promptly to check cow vigilantes from behaving like they are "law unto themselves".
The apex court had sought response from Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments on a plea seeking contempt action for not following its order to take stern steps to stop violence in the name of cow vigilantism, today led the Supreme Court to seek responses from the three states.
The contempt petition has been filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, saying the three states have not complied with the top court order of September 6 last year.
Watch: Supreme Court gets tough on mob lynching cases
