Cow vigilantes: SC seeks reply from Centre, states

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 21

The Supreme Court today agreed to consider a plea for a ban on “gau rakshaks” by seeking the response of the Centre and six states to three PILs on the issue.

A Bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy, however, did not issue formal notice to the Centre or the state governments — Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jharkhand — which recently witnessed violent cow vigilantism.

The Bench asked social activist Tehseen Poonawala and the other two petitioners to give copies of their petitions to the respondents to enable them to come up with their response, and posted the next hearing for November 7. The other petitioners are Mohanbhai Hamirabhai Bedva and Martin C Machwan.

Citing violence by self-styled cow vigilantes, the petitioners pleaded that the developments had mostly affected Dalits and minorities. Those affected by the violence had also launched a stir in various states, particularly in Gujarat where four Dalit men were thrashed following suspicion that they were involved in cow slaughter.

This trend was set last year after Mohammad Ikhlaq was lynched in Uttar Pradesh by a mob for alleged possession of beef. There was an immediate need for stopping such vigilantism to maintain law and order and protect the lives of Dalits and poor people from other sections of society, the petitioners pleaded.