State governments cannot wash their hands of their responsibility to crack down on cow vigilante groups.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra ordered the Chief Secretaries of 22 States to file their compliance reports on steps taken, including the appointment of dedicated nodal police officers in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), to prevent cow vigilantes, or ‘gau rakshaks’ as they call themselves, from “taking the law or becoming a law unto themselves.”
Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Gujarat have already filed their compliance affidavits.
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Counsel for Bihar and Maharashtra said they will file the reports in the course of the day.
All compliance reports have to reach the court before October 13, the next date of hearing. The court had on September 6 given the 29 States and seven Union Territories a week’s time to put in place a counter-mechanism to act against and prosecute cow vigilantes. “Let the compliance reports be filed...nobody can wash their hands of [their duty]. We will give directions to all the States,” Chief Justice Misra said
However, the court did not entertain a submission made by senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for a party in the case, regarding Junaid, a boy who was killed by a group of fellow passengers while returning to his Ballabhgarh home with his brothers after Eid shopping in Delhi on June 23. Ms. Jaising submitted that his family members were not paid any compensation and his father has been hospitalised.
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On September 6, the Bench had expressed concern on an application filed by Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Tushar Gandhi on the dangers posed by gau rakshaks to public safety and personal freedoms.
Mr. Gandhi had complained of the lack of responsibility and accountability shown by the Centre and the States, even as cow vigilantes wreaked havoc and resorted to murder in broad daylight in the name of the cow.
He said Dalits and Muslims have been at the receiving end of a rash of violence unleashed by lynch mobs.