Amid uproar over the numerous mob lynching incident in the country, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said that it was the states’ responsibility to prevent such incident.
Fake news and rumour mongering was leading to lynchings, Singh said in the Lok Sabha. He also said that the social media sites have been asked to regulate fake news.
In protest against Singh’s statement, the Opposition staged a walkout expressing dissatisfaction with Union Minister’s statement on incidents of mob violence.
The Union Minister’s statement comes days after the Supreme Court urged Parliament to consider enacting a new law to deal with lynching and cow vigilantism stating that "horrendous acts of mobocracy" cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land.
"Rising intolerance and growing polarisation cannot be permitted to become the normal way of life," the apex court stated referring to the instances of lynching and mob violence, calling it creeping threats, which may gradually take the shape of a "Typhon-like monster".
A bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, also passed a slew of directions to the government to provide "preventive, remedial and punitive measures" to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism.
The judgment was delivered on a batch of petitions, including by Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Tushar Gandhi and Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla, seeking formulation of guidelines to curb incidents of mob violence and lynching in the country.
"The state cannot turn a deaf ear to the growing rumblings of its people," the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said.
The apex court said there was a need to enact a special law as it would instil a sense of fear for law amongst those who get involved in mob lynching.
The court also said that the authorities, conferred with the responsibility to maintain law and order in the states, have the principal obligation to see that vigilantism, be it cow vigilantism or any other vigilantism of any perception, do not take place.
