SC gives more time to states to comply with order on mob lynching

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed all states and union territories who have not complied with the earlier directions of the court on mob lynching to comply with its order in a week's time. The matter will be heard by the apex court after two weeks.

Petitioner and senior advocate Indira Jaising said that the state governments have not complied with the SC order to speak up against mob lynching incidents across the country and urged the apex court to act on the same.

The SC had earlier in Septemeber taken exception to the fact that only 11 of the 29 states and seven union territories had filed reports regarding compliance of its order directing them to take steps to deal with mob lynchings and cow vigilantism.

The apex court had on September 7 said that if the states did not file their reports within a week, their home secretaries will have to appear in person before the court.

The Centre had told court that an Empowered Group of Ministers has been set up to consider framing a law on mob violence following the cow vigilantism verdict.

On July 17, the top court had said that "horrendous acts of mobocracy" cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and issued a slew of guidelines to deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism. It had also asked the Centre to consider enacting a new law to sternly deal with such incidents.