Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said anti-social elements in the garb of gau rakshaks are spreading violence against the down-trodden and destroying the delicate social fabric, the Supreme Court will hear a petition seeking a direction to declare cow vigilantes “extortionists” and asking the government to put an end to their atrocities against Dalits and minorities.
“The Dalits who were attacked at Una or at East Godavri were only doing their traditional profession of skinning the already dead cow to provide leather to tanneries ... the menace caused by the so-called cow protection groups is spreading fast to every nook and corner of the country and is creating disharmony among various communities and castes,” said the public interest litigation petition filed by entrepreneur and activist Tehseen S. Poonawalla on Saturday.
The violence committed by these groups have reached such proportions that even the Prime Minister has declared them people who are destroying society, the petition said. These vigilantes should be punished under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code as well as the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, it said.
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The petition points to how some State governments even provide cow vigilantes with identity cards. The Gujarat Animal Prevention Act, 1956, deems that all who act to protect cows are deemed public servants and no legal action shall be instituted against them, the petition said.
Same is the case with the Maharashtra Animal Prevention Act, 1956, and the Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act. The Gujarat Animal Prevention (Amendment) Rules, 2011, provide that authorised persons under these rules include those employed in gaushalas.“These laws and the protection act as a catalyst to violence perpetrated by vigilantes,” the petition said.