SC verdict on mob lynching: Court directs centre to implicate law in 4 weeks

The Supreme Court today gave its verdict on pleas seeking directions to formulate guidelines to curb vigilantism and said no citizen can take law into their own hands. In case of fear and anarchy, the state has to act positively.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, previously while reserving their order, had reminded the Central and state governments of their responsibility to curb violence by vigilante groups.

The court had earlier said that violence by any vigilante group had to be curbed after its attention was drawn to the violence in Maharashtra in which five people were killed in mob violence in the wake of social media posts on alleged child lifters.

Article 256 of the Constitution, which spells the obligation of States and the Union, provides that the Centre could give necessary directions to the States in a given situation, but the Centre had said it could issue advisories to the states as law and order was a state subject.