SC scan on cow vigilante -gau raksha groups ban plea

TT, New Delhi, Oct. 21: The Sureme Court today sought responses from the Centre and six states on a public interest petition seeking a ban on cow vigilante groups across the country.

These states are Gujarat -where cow vigilantes' public flogging of four Dalit men in July sparked a countrywide furore - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Maharashtra-based social activists and Congress sympathisers Tehseen Poonawala and his brother Shehzad Poonawala had moved the petition, which came up before the bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy.

The petition alleged that cow vigilante groups were, with protection from the state governments, spreading terror among Dalits and minorities under the guise of "cow protection".

It sought directives to the Centre and the state governments to take immediate and appropriate action against the vigilantes.

The petition cited the flogging of Dalits in Una; the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaque in Dadri over allegations of cow slaughter; the custody death of Minhaj Ansari in Jharkhand after his arrest over a WhatsApp message on beef and several other instances of atrocities by cow vigilantes.

"The petitioner humbly submits that the menace caused by the so-called cow protection groups is spreading fast to every nook and corner of the country and is creating disharmony among various communities and castes," it said.

"The violence committed by the so-called gau raksha groups has reached such proportions that even the Hon'ble Prime Minister has declared them as people who are destroying society. These vigilante groups are operating beyond the realm of law."

The petition stressed that the vigilantes' "atrocities" were punishable under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Among the directions the petition sought from the court were:

• A direction to the states to take immediate and necessary action against cow vigilante groups;

• A direction to remove violent content uploaded by these groups on social media sites;

• A declaration of certain state cow slaughter laws as unconstitutional.