The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre and the states to take necessary steps to put an end to cow vigilantism. It asked each state to appoint a senior police officer in every district as a nodal officer to take action against cow vigilantism.
The apex court also questioned the government as to what measures have been taken to prevent cow vigilantism. It further said that both the Centre and states must take steps to stop cow vigilante groups from taking the law into their hands.
However, the court stopped the petitioners from politicising the issue and said they should also file a petition questioning the huge animal slaughter during Eid
“You (petitioners) know how a large number of animals were slaughtered just a few days ago. You must also file petitions against it,” the top court told the petitioners.
Appearing for petitioners, Indira Jaising and Colin Gonsalves said despite the Centre’s stand that it did not support cow vigilantism, there is growing number of incidents across India. Jaising argued that the Centre cannot wash its hands off the cow vigilantism issue by terming it a mere law and order problem. She said Centre had a constitutional mandate under Article 256 to direct the states to take appropriate measures to prevent cow vigilantism.
Taking recent incidents into consideration, the bench asked the chief secretaries of each state in consultation with DGPs to keep highways safe from cow vigilante groups.
