NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC) said today that mob lynching is a crime no matter what the motive is and added that it is a law and order issue that is the responsibility of state governments, reported news agencies.
That is, the apex court said whether a lynching happens as a result of cow vigilantism or because people believe someone is a child abductor, it doesn’t matter – lynching is a crime, period.
Putting the onus on the states to check cow vigilantism, the top court today reserved its verdict on pleas seeking directions to formulate guidelines to curb such violence, saying no one can take the law into their hands.
Instances of vigilantism were actually acts of mob violence, which are a crime, said the SC. The top court said it plans to issue guidelines to the Centre as well as all states on how to deal with this grisly phenomenon.
The Centre, in its submission, told the three-judge bench of Supreme Court that mob lynching is a law and order problem and the Court may deal with the state governments if they are not following its order.
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”.
