No place for mobocracy

​New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Parliament to create a new penal provision to deal with cases of lynching across the country, saying ‘mobocracy can’t take over’ and that law and order is the government’s responsibility.

A bench of CJI Dipak and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud gave a series of directions to deal with cases of lynching. The court sought a compliance report from the Centre and states. The top court called lynching incidents ‘horrendous acts of mobocracy’.

“Horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be allowed to become a new norm and has to be curbed with iron hands,” it said, adding that states cannot turn a deaf ear to such incidents.

“No one can take the law into their hands. No one can become law unto themselves. Recurring pattern of violence cannot be allowed to be the new norm,” the bench said.

The top court passed the order on a plea seeking formulation of guidelines to curb violent incidents of cow vigilantism in the country.

Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, in his plea told the court that contempt must be instituted against Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, as they had failed to comply with the top court’s order.

In September last year, the apex court had asked all the states to take stern measures to stop violence in the name of cow protection. It had directed states to appoint senior police officers as nodal officers in every district within a week in order to check cow vigilantes from taking "law unto themselves".

The court had also sought response from Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments on a plea seeking contempt action for not following its order to take stern steps to stop violence in the name of cow vigilantism.