{"id":36625,"date":"2023-07-31T10:25:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T04:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=36625"},"modified":"2025-04-21T23:31:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T18:01:01","slug":"mob-lynching-states-lax-response-to-lynching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/mob-lynching-states-lax-response-to-lynching\/","title":{"rendered":"Mob lynching: States\u2019 lax response to lynching"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Mob Lynching?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What has the Supreme Court Observed?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What was Tehseen Poonawala&#8217;s Judgment?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>7 Remedial Directions Given by the SC<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Contempt Petition against the Centre and States<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The SC has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the governments of MH, Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar, MP and Haryana an explanation for their <strong>\u201cconsistent failure\u201d to act against lynching<\/strong> and mob violence committed on Muslims by cow vigilantes.<\/li>\n<li>This is in response to a petition filed by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), highlighting that the <strong>\u201crampant rise\u201d in lynchings violates constitutional guarantees <\/strong>provided under\n<ul>\n<li>Articles 14 (equality before the law),<\/li>\n<li>15 (religious non-discrimination) and<\/li>\n<li>21 (right to life) of the Constitution<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Mob Lynching?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is when common people <strong>take the law into their own hands<\/strong> and in an attempt to <strong>achieve their distorted version of justice<\/strong>, violate the basic human rights of others by killing them and neglecting due process.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It constitutes a grand failure on part of the State<\/strong> which must prevent the violation thereof and must further protect the fundamental rights (<strong>Article 14, 15 and 21<\/strong>) guaranteed to its citizens under the Constitution.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Its causes include<\/strong> intolerance, biases and vigilantism in the society; lack of speedy justice; inefficiency of police administration; police are in breach of a \u201cduty of care, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In India<\/strong>, communal based violence, Cow-related mob lynching, suspicion of child lifting, theft cases, etc., are some of the types of mob lynching.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What has the Supreme Court Observed?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It issued notice<\/strong> to the MHA and the police chiefs of the six States <strong>to explain the \u201calarming rise\u201d in lynchings<\/strong> despite a SC judgment in <strong>Tehseen Poonawala versus Union of India in 2018.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Vigilantism cannot become the \u201cnew normal\u201d and <strong>no citizen can assault the human dignity of another<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No right is higher in a secular, pluralistic and multiculturalist social order<\/strong> than the right to live with dignity and to be treated with humaneness.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What was Tehseen Poonawala&#8217;s Judgment?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The judgment held that it was the \u201c<strong>sacrosanct duty<\/strong>\u201d of the state to protect the lives of its citizens.<\/li>\n<li>It said <strong>spiralling incidents of lynchings<\/strong>, and the gruesome visuals aired through social media have compelled the court to reflect on<strong> whether the populace has lost the values of tolerance to sustain a diverse culture<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bystander apathy, numbness<\/strong> of the mute spectators, <strong>the inertia of the law enforcing machinery<\/strong> and <strong>grandstanding of the incident<\/strong> by the perpetrators of the crimes (including social media), aggravates the entire problem.<\/li>\n<li>The authorities of the States have the \u201c<strong>principal obligation<\/strong>\u201d to see that vigilantism, be it cow vigilantism or any other, does not take place.<\/li>\n<li>The judgment warned that vigilantes usher in <strong>anarchy, chaos, disorder<\/strong> and eventually there is an emergence of a violent society.\u00a0 Hence, vigilantism cannot be given room to take shape.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>7 Remedial Directions Given by the SC:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Appointment of a designated nodal officer:<\/strong> Not below the rank of Superintendent of Police for taking measures to prevent prejudice-motivated crimes like mob violence and lynching.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The immediate lodging of an FIR:<\/strong> If an incident of lynching or mob violence comes to the notice of the local police.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Duty of the Station House Officer:<\/strong> Who has registered the FIR to inform the nodal officer in the district, who in turn should ensure that the families of the victims are spared of any further harassment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The investigation of the crime should be personally monitored: <\/strong>By the nodal officer and the investigation and chargesheet are filed within the stipulated period in law.<\/li>\n<li><strong>There should be a scheme to compensate victims<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Any failure to comply with the court\u2019s directions:<\/strong> By a police or district administration officer would be considered as an act of deliberate negligence and\/or misconduct.<\/li>\n<li><strong>States should take disciplinary action:<\/strong> Against their officials if they did not did not prevent an incident of mob lynching, despite having prior knowledge of it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m5sUqgNoYWg\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m5sUqgNoYWg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Contempt Petition against the Centre and States:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Centre and States are facing a separate contempt petition in the SC <strong>for non-compliance with the Tehseen Poonawala judgment<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>In that case, the SC had directed the State governments<strong> to file a status report giving year wise data from 2018 <\/strong>of the &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>Number of complaints received.<\/li>\n<li>FIRs registered and chargesheets filed in lynching cases.<\/li>\n<li>Steps\/measures, preventive and remedial, taken by the State governments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>The court directed the Centre <\/strong>to file an affidavit stating the outcome of a proposed meeting between the MHA and the department heads of the State governments about the compliance of the Tehseen Poonawala judgment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What does Article 14 of the Indian Constitution state?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Article 14 of the Constitution of India reads as under: \u201cThe State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Which all rights are included in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Article 21 states that \u201cNo person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law.\u201d Thus, article 21 secures two rights: Right to life, and. 2) Right to personal liberty.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/specials\/text-and-context\/states-lax-response-to-lynching\/article67138604.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Explained | States\u2019 lax response to lynching<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mob lynching is when common people take the law into their own hands and in an attempt to achieve their distorted version of justice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}