Supreme Court tells states to crack down on cow vigilantes

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday was severely critical of cow vigilantism and directed all state governments to appoint nodal police officers in every district to prevent the cow vigilante groups from resorting to violence and taking the law into their hands.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Amitav Roy and A.M. Kanwilkar said that states shall nominate a senior police officer, preferably of the rank of deputy superintendent of police, to ensure that vigilante groups don’t “behave as if they are a law unto themselves and take prompt action and prosecute such people with quite promptitude”.

On behalf of the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana, additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta assured the court that the task force as suggested by the court would be set up to stop cow vigilantism. The court gave state governments one week to submit their reports on nomination of police officers and the instructions issued to them. Chief secretaries and police chiefs of the states have been tasked with carrying out these directions.

After hearing senior counsel Kapil Sibal, Indira Jaising and others, the bench observed that although the Central government did make a statement in July that it did not support vigilantism and that the state governments are required to take action, some mechanism will have to be put in place to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.

Ms Jaising, appearing for journalist Tushar Gandhi, brought to the court’s notice 66 alleged incidents of mob lynching and assaults in the name of cow vigilantism after the Centre’s undertaking in the court.

The CJI told the ASG: “Steps have to be taken to stop this. Some kind of planned action is required so that vigilantism does not grow. Efforts have to be made to stop such vigilantism. How they (states) do it is their business, but this must stop.”

The court directed the Centre to respond to a submission by senior advocate Indira Jaising for Mr Gandhi that the Centre could not wash its hands of its constitutional responsibility under Article 256 of the Constitution to instruct the states to take “necessary” steps in law to save innocent human lives from fury of mobs.

“Non-violence is the founding faith of this country. The Centre cannot turn its back on the violence. The states have the responsibility to lodge FIRs against these vigilantes,” Ms Jaising submitted. She also noted most of the incidents had taken place along highways.

The bench asked Mr Mehta to take instructions from the Centre to specify its role under Article 256 and the steps it would take to prevent any future incidents of violence. The bench directed the chief secretaries and DGPs of states to consult each other and respond to the court on steps taken for highway patrolling to prevent such incidents.

The petitioners, Congress activist Tehseen Poonawalla and others, had sought criminal action against the cow vigilante groups, whose recent rampages and lynchings have seen communal tensions rise across the country. The petitions also sought a direction to the Centre and states to pull down all the videos of violence uploaded by cow vigilante groups from social media sites.

When senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for one of the petitioners brought to the court’s notice the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru, the court asked him not to bring in politics. Justice Kanwilkar told him: “You (petitioners) know how a large number of animals were slaughtered just a few days back. You must also file petitions against it.”