New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on Friday that the states have the responsibility of compensating victims of violence by cow vigilante groups even without any judicial order. “We do not want to say that all the states have the responsibility to compensate victims of cow-violence. At the same time, law and order is a priority, and anyone violating should be dealt with strictly. The bench of three judges, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, said, while hearing on the plea of Congress leader Tehseen S Poonawala, and activist Tushar Gandhi who had sought directions to the states to verify cow vigilantism.
The bench said that states should frame schemes to compensate the victims of crime, which also includes cow vigilantism, as given by the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Appearing for Tushar Gandhi, senior advocate Indira Jaising had asked for a plan for people suffering from lawbreakers. She referred to the case of Junaid, who was killed in a train in Faridabad and said “Payment of compensation should be an automatic procedure”. However, the Bench found that individual cases should not be linked to major problems.
The JaiSing and senior advocate Kapil Sibal also elevate Pahlu Khan’s case, who was killed in Rajasthan and said that away from receiving justice, the families of the victims are being harassed through counter-case. The Supreme Court also informed the States and Union Territories that they should appoint nodal officers to deal with cow vigilantism till October 31 to follow the September 6 order.
The Bench had informed that only five states – Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh – had filed the report as per the first order and Bihar and Maharashtra would file it during the day.
It asked the Chief Secretaries of the remaining 22 states to file a compliance report in the wake of the order to lay the mechanism to deal with those groups.
“File Compliance Report… No one can wash their hands (duty), we will direct all the states,” said the bench.
Taking serious note of violence in the name of saving cows, the Supreme Court passed a number of measures on September 6 and asked the states to appoint senior police officers in each district as a nodal officer. The “senior police officer will take immediate action and will ensure vigilante groups and such people are prosecuted promptly,” it was said that Nodal officers must ensure that cow vigilante becomes law for themselves. The court asked the states to file a compliance report.
The “Steps are being taken to prevent this… some kind of planned action is necessary so that vigilantism should not be increased, efforts should be made to stop such vigilantism. How will they (the state) do this, it is their business But it should be closed, “the bench had said on September 6 after Indira Jaising that on behalf of the petitioners it has been said that since July, 66 people have been subjected to mob lynching and assault.