india

Updated: Jul 05, 2019 00:04 IST

The Supreme Court turned down on Thursday a request to list for urgent hearing a contempt application against states that have failed to implement the court’s direction to control lynch mobs.

SC had in July laid down guidelines to rein in self-styled vigilante squads to curb the menace of mob lynching.

An advocate for one of the petitioners in the case appeared before a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and asked for an early hearing on the ground that incidents of mob lynching have increased despite the top court’s verdict.

The bench, however, said the application would come up during the normal course of hearing.

On July 17 last year, the court had said: “No act of a citizen is to be adjudged by any kind of community under the guise of protectors of law.”

It ordered appointment of all district superintendents of police (SSP) as nodal officers to prevent and tackle such vigilante attacks and also directed fast tracking of the case.

The court had also said deterrent punishment should be imposed on erring officers found neglecting their duties.

The latest plea comes in the backdrop of a spate of lynchings in the country, the latest being that of one Tabrez Ansari’s in Jharkhand. On June 18, Ansari, a 24-year-old welder was allegedly tied to a pole and thrashed through the night with sticks.