GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court has issued a warning to Assam and four other states for not filing counter-affidavits in a public interest litigation (PIL) against mob lynching.
The apex court’s warning to Assam, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Bihar came while hearing a PIL filed by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), expressing concern over the alleged increase in cases of lynching and mob violence.
A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan ordered that the counter-affidavits should be filed by the chief secretaries of the five states, failing which, they shall themselves remain present before the Court and show cause as to why action should not be taken against them.
“From the perusal of the records it appears that the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Bihar have not filed their respective counter affidavits. We direct the chief secretaries of the above-mentioned states to file their respective counter affidavits, within a period of four weeks from today,” the Court ordered on Tuesday.
“We clarify that in the event the counter affidavits are not filed by the above-mentioned states, the chief secretaries of the said states shall remain personally present in the Court on the next date of hearing to show cause as to why an action should not be taken against them for non-compliance of the orders of the Court,” the bench stated.
The Registrar (Judicial) was thereafter directed to communicate the order to the concerned chief secretaries and the matter listed after four weeks.
It may be noted that NFIW has urged the apex court to issue a mandamus to authorities to take immediate action “in terms of the findings and directions in the Tehseen Poonawalla” case to address the growing problem.
In this connection, the petition referred to two incidents of Muslims being lynched by a mob over a suspicion of smuggling beef in Bihar’s Saran and Nasik in Maharashtra; an alleged assault by Bajrang Dal on a Muslim daily wage earner for transporting two cows; a violent attack, illegal detention, and humiliation of two Muslim men by an angry mob Bhubaneswar, Odisha; and an attack on a bus carrying several Hajj pilgrims by a violent mob in Kota, Rajasthan.
According to a report, NFIW has alleged that the state machinery has consistently failed to take adequate preventive and consequential action to curb the menace of lynching and mob violence. This, despite a ruling of the Supreme Court that the State has a ‘sacrosanct duty’ to protect its citizens from ‘unruly elements’ and ‘perpetrators of orchestrated lynching and vigilantism’.
The petitioner had further submitted that incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism should be seen as a result of false propaganda against minorities spread by means of public events as well as on social media channels, news channels and films.
The NFIW, besides praying for a writ of mandamus seeking the enforcement of the Tehseen Poonawalla guidelines, has also sought immediate relief for the lynching victims by asking for a portion of the total compensation to be granted to victims or their families immediately after the incident as “interim compensation”.
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