SC says no to plea for hauling up police for incidents of cow vigilantism

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused a plea to haul up individual police officers for any incident of violence in the name of cow vigilantism.

A bench presided over by Justice Dipak Misra said," The states will take care of it. We don't want to pass any order right now."

The court's response came as senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for activist Tehseen S Poonawalla, said individual police officers should be held responsible if any incidents get reported from a particular area.

"If one police officer is held responsible, things would get sorted out," Hegde said. He was arguing on a PIL challenging different state laws granting immunity from prosecution to individuals (Gau Rakshaks) involved in cow protection.
Hegde's bid to take the name of newly appointed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was also shot down by the bench.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat, quipped that Hegde's submission was to hit headlines in the media. Hegde, however, shot back, saying all those incidents relating to violence in the name of cow protection had hit the headlines.
The court, however, asked the Union Government as well as the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, to file their response within 6 weeks to the PIL. During the hearing, Hegde also referred to a recent incident of violence in Delhi.

Notably, the Karnataka government has defended before the Court its law granting protection to 'Gau Rakshak' for prevention of cow slaughter. In an affidavit, the state, however, had maintained the act done only in “good faith” was protected under the law and not any violent or criminal activities bringing disharmony between communities.

Poonawalla and two others had sought directions to declare the provisions in the laws of Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, which granted recognition to vigilante groups for cow protection as unconstitutional.