Mob lynching: Centre asks channels, AIR to run warning message

Days after the Supreme Court asked all states and Union Territories to comply with its directions on curbing cow vigilantism and mob lynching, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has reportedly issued a direction to public broadcasters, including Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR), to run messages through their medium to caution people about such incidents.  

“It is a direction to DD and AIR and a request to private channels to run information about the consequences of mob lynching,” an official told Hindustan Times on Friday.

On September 24, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra took note of the fact that eight states including Mizoram, Telangana, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi are yet to file reports indicating the compliance of its July 17 verdict giving a slew of directions to deal with mob violence and cow vigilantism.

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The bench also sought the Centre’s response on compliance of the court’s directive to run an awareness campaign on television, radio and electronic and print media against mob lynching and cow vigilantism.The Centre had earlier informed the bench that in pursuance of the apex court verdict, an empowered group of ministers has been set up to consider framing a law on mob violence.

The apex court had on July 17 said that “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and issued a slew of guidelines to deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism, besides asking the Centre to consider enacting a new law to sternly deal with such cases.

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The court had issued a slew of directions to the government to provide “preventive, remedial and punitive measures” to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism.It had asked the state governments to designate a senior police officer, not below the rank of superintendent of police, as nodal officer in each district to take steps to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.

(With PTI inputs)