Cow vigilantism: SC slams states for disobeying orders

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday took a stern view of the fact that only nine of the 29 states and two of the seven union territories (UTs) have so far complied with its July 17 order giving a slew of directions to deal with mob violence and cow vigilantism incidents across the country. A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra gave the last opportunity by granting one more week to the remaining states and UTs to do the needful and warned them that any default would be viewed seriously and their home secretaries would have to appear personally before it.

"We direct the remaining states and UTs to file the compliance reports in a week. If the reports are not filed, the home secretaries of the defaulting states will have to appear personally," said the Bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud. Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, informed the Bench that in pursuance of the apex court's verdict, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has been set up to consider framing a law on mob violence.

The Court also directed the Rajasthan government to file a report within a week giving details of action taken by it in the alleged lynching of farmer Rakbar Khan on July 20 in Alwar district of the state. Earlier, it had issued notice to the state government on the plea of Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Rajasthan officials, including the Chief Secretary and the police chief, for alleged violation of the top court's verdict in the lynching case.

Poonawala, in his plea, had said that the 28-year old dairy farmer Rakbar Khan was attacked by a group of cow vigilantes in Lalwandi village of Ramgarh district in Rajasthan on July 20, three days after the apex court had delivered a detailed verdict. Khan, a resident of Haryana and his friend Aslam, were transporting two cows to Kolgaon through a forest area when a mob had attacked them on the alleged grounds they were taking the animals for slaughter, the plea said.

While Aslam managed to survive by hiding in the fields, the crowd killed Rakbar, it said, adding that there was a considerable delay in taking the deceased to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.