Contempt plea in Supreme Court over Rajasthan ‘failure’ to curb lynching

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will on August 20 hear contempt petitions filed against the Rajasthan government for its ‘failure to prevent’ yet another lynching, days after the court held state governments responsible for preventing such incidents.

The court’s attention was drawn to Friday’s lynching by lawyers of activist Tehseen Poonawala and Tushar Gandhi, who sought SC’s intervention to prevent people from taking the law into their own hands.

The court had recently urged Parliament to enact a law to specifically deal with rising instances of lynchings in different parts of the country. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said that he would take up a fresh plea seeking contempt action against the BJP government in Rajasthan when the case comes up for hearing on August 20.


In its July 18 ruling, the court had reminded states that they were constitutionally bound to maintain law and order in their respective states and it was their constitutional duty to do so. The court had said that it would hold district-level police heads accountable for any lapse.

The police in the latest case of mob murder are accused of dilly-dallying in taking the victim to hospital, leading to his death.

The Supreme Court had also directed on July 18 that all states frame a compensation scheme for the next of kin of such mob violence.

It had also directed police to immediately file FIRs in all such instances.

Seen in this context, the contempt pleas could spell trouble for the Rajasthan chief minister.