Supreme Court warns five states to file counter-affidavit in PIL against mob lynching : Valley Vision

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a warning to five states, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Bihar, to file their counter-affidavits in cases of lynching and mob violence, particularly by ‘cow vigilantes’ by the next date, LiveLaw reported.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan ordered that the counter-affidavits shall be filed by the Chief Secretaries of the five states, failing which, the Chief Secretaries shall themselves remain present before the Court and show cause as to why action should not be taken against them.

“We clarify that in the event the counter affidavits are not filed by the above-mentioned States, the Chief Secretaries of the said States shall remain personally present in the Court on the next date of hearing to show cause as to why an action should not be taken against them for non-compliance of the orders of the Court,” the order reads.

Advocate Nizam Pasha appeared for NFIW.

The top court was hearing the petition filed by the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) concerning cases of lynching in India. NFIW has urged the top court to issue a mandamus to authorities to take immediate action “in terms of the findings and directions in Tehseen Poonawalla case”.

According to the guidelines, issued by the Supreme Court, there must be a nodal officer appointed in each district who is not below the rank of Superintendent of Police to prevent incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism. Within three weeks of the date of the judgment, the State Governments are required to identify the affected districts where lynching incidents have taken place.

The State Governments shall prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme under Section 357 A of CrPC within one month from the date of this judgment.