Government Sets up High Level Committee Chaired by Union Home Secretary to Check Mob Lynching

Considering increasing incidents of mob lynching, Union Govt. constituted High Level Committee chaired by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba to deliberate in matter & make recommendations.

Psychological Characteristics of a Mob

Members of High Level Committee to Check Mob Lynching

  • Secretary, Department of Justice; Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs; Secretary, Legislative Department; & Secretary, Social Justice & Empowerment are members of committee.
  • Committee will submit its recommendations to Govt. w⟋I 4 weeks, that is, by August 2018.

GoM headed by Union Home Minister to consider recommendations of High Level Committee

  • Other members of GoM are Union Minister of External Affairs, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Union Minister of Law & Justice & Union Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment.
  • Group of Ministers will submit their recommendations to PM Modi.

Police & Public Order Are State Subjects

  • Union Govt. is highly concerned about incidents of mob violence in some parts of country.
  • Govt. has condemned such incidents & made its stand clear in Parliament that, as per Constitutional scheme, Police & Public Order are State subjects.
  • State Govt. are responsible for controlling crime, maintaining law & order, & protecting life & property of citizens. They are empowered to enact & enforce laws to curb crime in their jurisdiction.
  • Earlier, Union Home Ministry asserted in Parliament that it is duty of States to control incidents of mob lynching on 20th July, 2018.

Advisories by Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Mob Lynching

  • Union Ministry of Home Affairs has issued advisories to States & UTs for maintenance of public order & prevention of crime in their areas of jurisdiction.
  • Advisory on addressing issue of lynching by mob on suspicion of child lifting was issued on 4th July, 2018. Advisory was issued earlier on 9th August, 2016 on disturbances by mob in name of cow protection.

Recent Directions of Supreme Court on Issue of Mob Violence

Supreme Court condemned mob lynching incidents across country & urged Parliament to enact new law to deal w⟋crime that threatens rule of law & country՚s social fabric on 17thJuly, 2018.

Court passed slew of directions in this regard to deal w⟋mob lynching. Directions of SC:

  • There shall be “separate offence” for lynching & trial courts must ordinarily award max. sentence upon conviction of accused person to set stern example in cases of mob violence.
  • State govt. will have to designate senior police officer in each district for taking measures to prevent incidents of mob violence & lynching.
  • State govt. need to identify districts, sub-divisions & villages where instances of lynching & mob violence were reported in recent past.
  • Nodal officers shall bring to notice of DGP about any inter-district co-ordination issues for devising strategy to tackle lynching & mob violence related issues.
  • Every police officer shall ensure to disperse mob that has tendency to cause violence in disguise of vigilantism or otherwise.
  • Central & state govt. shall broadcast on radio, television & other media platforms about serious consequences of mob lynching & mob violence.
  • Despite measures taken by State Police, if it comes to notice of local police that incident of lynching or mob violence has taken place, jurisdictional police station shall immediately lodge FIR.
  • State Govt. shall prepare lynching⟋mob violence victim compensation scheme in light of provisions of Section 357A of CrPC w⟋I one month from date of this judgment.
  • If police officer or officer of district administration fails to fulfill his duty, it will be considered act of deliberate negligence.

Union Govt. respected these recent directions of Supreme Court & issued advisory to State Govt. urging them to take effective measures to prevent incidents of mob violence & lynching.

Limiting of Message Forwarding to 5 Chats in India by WhatsApp to Check Fake News

  • Under pressure to stop rumours & fake news triggering horrific mob lynching incidents, WhatsApp announced to limit forwarding messages to 5 chats.
  • Decision came after Ministry of Electronics & IT had written to WhatsApp to take immediate steps to tackle menace of misuse of their platform wherein inflammatory messages were circulated that led to unfortunate incidents.
  • More than 20 people were killed by mobs in past 2 months across country after being accused of child kidnapping & other crimes in viral messages circulated on WhatsApp.

What Prompted Govt. To Constitute Committee?

  • Move comes after number of mob lynching incidents were reported in several areas, stemming from fake social media rumours of child kidnappers as well as cow vigilantism.
  • Union Govt. S decision to set up High Level Committee came w⟋I days of mob lynching incident in Rajasthan՚s Alwar. On 21st July, 2018, group of villagers lynched Rakbar Khan in Alwar district on suspicion of cow smuggling.
  • Union Ministry of Home Affairs had sought report from Rajasthan Govt. on incident.
  • India is struggling w⟋rising incidents of mob lynching since 2015, when Muslim man was killed in village nearby Delhi only on grounds that he was in possession of beef, thus, leading to cow vigilantism.

What is Mob Violence?

  • Mob-lynchings & violence have become new normal in India especially in wake of silent political class who has chosen to either turn blind eye or render mere lip-service condemning such attacks.
Mob Violence
  • This has hollowed primary role of govt. gradually. Number of incidents has shown marked rise since last year.

Main Cases of Mob Violence

  • Cow vigilantism: Mob-lynching due to cow slaughter has seen recent high. Reason for increase in number of these incidents is laxity shown by govt. to criminalise same.
  • Demanding Quota: There is spate of protests & mobs turning violent to burn public & private property to bring govt. to knees & accept demands of reservation put forth.
  • Violence on Ram Rahim Verdict: This was another particular example of holding 3 states to ransom by huge mass of people in protest of conviction of their Guru, under latent impunity & patronage of ruling govt.

Examrace Team at Aug 21, 2021