New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre and all states and Union Territories not to allow “cow vigilantism” or “lynching” by any group or mob by taking law into their hands and nip it in the bud. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud dealing with a writ petition filed by Tehseen S. Poonawalla suggested to Parliament to enact a law to make lynching a separate offence including the provision for compensation to victims.
The Bench said, “We think it appropriate to recommend to the legislature, i.e, Parliament, to create a separate offence for lynching and provide adequate punishment for the same. We have said so as a special law in this field would instill a sense of fear for law amongst the people who involve themselves in such kinds of activities. There can be no trace of doubt that fear of law and veneration for the command of law constitute the foundation of a civilised society.”
Writing the judgement the Chief Justice said, “Vigilantism couldn’t, by any stretch of imagination, be given room to take shape, for it is absolutely a perverse notion. There can be no shadow of doubt that the authorities which are conferred with the responsibility to maintain law and order in the states have the principal obligation to see that vigilantism, be it cow vigilantism or any other vigilantism of any perception, does not take place.” The horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be permitted to inundate the law of the land, the court said.
Deprecating the tendency of intolerance, the court said there has been an unfortunate litany of spiraling mob violence and agonized horror presenting a grim and gruesome picture that compels us to reflect whether the populace of a great Republic like ours has lost the values of tolerance to sustain a diverse culture. The CJI said when any core group with some kind of idea takes the law into their own hands, it ushers in anarchy, chaos, disorder and, eventually, there is an emergence of a violent society. No one has the authority to enter into the field of law and order and harbour the feeling that he is the law and the punisher himself.
The court said a country where the rule of law prevails does not allow any such thought. It, in fact, commands for ostracisation of such thoughts with immediacy.
“Lynching is an affront to the rule of law and to the exalted values of the Constitution itself. We may say without any fear of contradiction that lynching by unruly mobs and barbaric violence arising out of incitement and instigation cannot be allowed to become the order of the day”, the CJI said.
The Bench said such vigilantism, be it for whatever purpose or borne out of whatever cause, has the effect of undermining the legal and formal institutions of the State and altering the constitutional order. These extra judicial attempts under the guise of protection of the law have to be nipped in the bud; lest it would lead to rise of anarchy and lawlessness, which would plague and corrode the nation like an epidemic. Underlining the importance of pluralism, the CJI said: “Pluralism and tolerance are essential virtues and constitute the building blocks of a truly free and democratic society. Intolerance arising out of a dogmatic mindset sows the seeds of upheaval.”
