The Supreme Court on Tuesday condemned the incidents of lynching across the country and urged the central government to bring in a separate act declaring lynching as an offence with punishment.
The bench, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, delivered this judgement after hearing a bunch of writ petitions which included petitions filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi.
"No citizen can take law into their own hands. In case of fear and anarchy, the state has to act positively. Violence can't be allowed. It is the duty of the State to ensure maintenance of law and order so as to protect secular ethos and prevent mobocracy,” the Supreme Court bench said.
The bench added that the acts of mob violence cannot be allowed to become a new norm in the country.
Reports say that the bench directed the Centre and the states to take various measures – preventive, punitive and remedial – to avoid such incidents from taking place in the future. The court also issued detailed guidelines regarding the same.
The bench also observed that the members of any specific groups cannot take law into their own hands and that it is the obligation of the states to prevent such instances of mob violence.
The Supreme Court had last year condemned the killings in the name of cows, stating that it was not permissible that people take law into their own hands. The Supreme Court had also issued notices to the governments of Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh while hearing a plea that sought contempt proceedings against the states for not preventing violent incidents of cow vigilantism.
The apex court asked Centre to file a compliance report on its directions and adjourned the matter to August 20.
The judgment came on a petition seeking the apex court's intervention to curb the incidents of violence by the vigilante groups across the country.