The apex court, on Friday, has agreed to hear a plea seeking ban on the cow vigilante groups for allegedly creating disharmony among various communities and castes and indulging mob violence.
The bench of Justice Deepak Misra and Justice Amitava Roy has even demanded a response from the Center and the governments of Gujarat, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana for allegedly providing protection to the cow vigilantes groups.
Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde alleged that ‘gau rakshak dals’ are spreading violence and committing atrocities against Dalits and members of the minority communities and requested court to order center and state governments to take actions against them.
The petitioner Thseen Poonawalla, a Congress member has requested the SC to declare ‘unconstitutional’ sections 12 of the Gujarat Animal Prevention Act, 1954, Section 13 of Animal Prevention Act, 1976 and Section 15 of Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act 1964 which provides protection of persons acting in good faith under the act of rules.
