“No citizen can take law into their hands” says SC; demands new law

Today, the Supreme Court has announced its verdict on the recent cases of mob lynching that has been going on across the country.

Most of the mob lynching has taken place over fake WhatsApp messages that are being circulated around.

The Supreme Court has ordered the state government to create a separate law to deal with the mob lynching cases. The Apex Court has stated that the citizen cannot take the law into his hands and that it was the duty of the state to maintain the law and order so as to protect secular ethos and prevent ‘mobocracy’.

The court said mobocracy can’t be allowed and has asked the Centre and States to file a compliance report on the issue. 

READ ALSO: SUPREME COURT’S VERDICT ON MOB LYNCHING; BREAKING NEWS

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 are maintained by preventing people from taking the 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 a 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.