While taking a serious view of mob lynching the Supreme Court on July 2 said that mob lynching is a crime and no matter what the motive is whether lynching happens as a result of cow vigilantism or because people believe someone is a child abductor. SC asks states to prevent such incidents, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra said.
“Nobody can take law into their own hands. It is the obligation of the state’s to see these incidents are prevented,” said a three-judge bench headed by the CJI Mishra.
“Anyone can be a victim of mob crime. We do not want to categorize victims of mob violence or lynching on the basis of their caste, gender or religion,” CJI added.
SC says that instances of vigilantism are actually acts of mob violence, which is a crime. Apex court added that plans are underway to issue guidelines to the Centre as well as all states on how to deal with rise in incidents of mob lynching.
The Supreme Court also said that it may lay down guidelines to compensate victims of vigilante violence.”
“We can deal with this under Article 142 of the Constitution (to do substantive justice), the concept of compensation, monitoring of investigation are aspects that have to be looked into in the judgment,” CJI said.
CJI also asked for compliance reports, saying “nobody can wash off their hands (from their duty).”
