SC issues contempt notice to Rajasthan, Haryana and UP over cow vigilantism

The Supreme Court on Monday issued contempt notice to Chief Secretaries of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh over multiple incidents of cow vigilantism, despite orders to appoint nodal officers to ensure such incidents do not occur.

In the previous hearing on 6 September, the court had directed the chief secretaries of every state government to file the status report and had directed all state governments to appoint a senior police officer as a nodal officer in each district to ensure that incidents of cow vigilantism are prevented and dealt with effectively.

During the hearing, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh filed their compliance reports giving details of action taken against incidents of cow vigilantism, as reported by ANI. The apex court asked other states to file their reports soon and fixed the matter for hearing on 31 October.

The apex court was hearing a PIL filed by Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, seeking various reliefs, including a direction to all the governments to take preventive measures against cow vigilantism.

In July, the Supreme Court had asked the centre and the states not to protect any kind of vigilantism and sought their response on violent incidents in the garb of cow protection.

The centre had stated that it condemns any kind of vigilantism, but that law and order is a state subject and it has no role to play in the matter.

Besides Gandhi, Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla had filed a similar petition on the issue in August 2016.

OneIndia News