PIL on Cow vigilantes: File counter-affidavit; SC to Assam, 4 other states

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Supreme Court issued a warning to five states-Assam, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Bihar-to file their counter-affidavits by the next date of hearing in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case on lynching and violence by cow vigilantes.

From the perusal of the records by the bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan, while hearing a PIL filed by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) raising alarm over the alleged increase in cases of lynching and mob violence, particularly by 'cow vigilantes', it appeared that the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Bihar have not filed their respective counter affidavits.

The bench ordered that the counter-affidavits shall be filed by the Chief Secretaries of the five states, failing which, the Chief Secretaries shall themselves remain present before the Court and show cause as to why action should not be taken against them.

The Registrar (Judicial) was directed to communicate the order to the concerned Chief Secretaries, and the matter is listed for further hearing after 4 weeks, on December 10, 2024.

The background of the case is 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. To bolster NFIW's contention, the petition refers to two incidents of Muslims being lynched by a mob over a suspicion of smuggling beef in Bihar's Saran and Nashik 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 in Orissa's capital, Bhubaneshwar; and an attack on a bus carrying several Hajj pilgrims by a violent mob in Kota, Rajasthan.

NFIW further alleged that the state machinery in the five states named has consistently failed to take adequate preventive and consequential action to curb the menace of lynching and mob violence. This occurred despite a Supreme Court ruling that the state has a 'sacrosanct duty' to protect its citizens from 'unruly elements' and 'perpetrators of orchestrated lynching and vigilantism'.

On top of the prayer for a writ of mandamus seeking the enforcement of the Tehseen Poonawalla guidelines, the NFIW has also sought immediate relief for the lynching victims by asking for a portion of the total amount of compensation to be granted to the victims or their families immediately after the incident as 'interim compensation.'

It is to be noted that, in the Tehseen Poonwalla judgement of 2018, the SC had issued comprehensive guidelines to the union and state governments regarding the prevention of lynching and mob violence.

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