Mob Lynching

Diksha Sharma January 3, 2022 5 MINUTES

Mob Lynching

Any act or series of acts of violence or aiding, abetting (encouraging) such act/acts thereof, whether spontaneous or planned, by a mob on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, language, dietary practices, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ethnicity or any other related grounds.

How are these cases handled?

There is no separate definition for such incidents under the existing IPC.
Lynching incidents can be dealt with under Section 300 and 302 of IPC.
Section 302 provides that whoever commits murder shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine. Offence of murder is a cognisable, non- bailable and noncompoundable offence.

Attempts by various states

Manipur government came up first with its Bill against lynching in 2018, incorporating some logical and relevant clauses.
Rajasthan government passed a bill against lynching in August 2019.
West Bengal too came up with a more stringent Bill against lynching.

Supreme Court guidelines

There should be a “separate offence” for lynching and the trial courts must ordinarily award maximum sentence upon conviction of the accused person to set a stern example in cases of mob violence.
The state governments will have to designate a senior police officer in each district for taking measures to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.
The state governments need to identify districts, sub-divisions and villageswhere instances of lynching and mob violence have been reported in the recent past.

Central and the state governments shall broadcast on radio, television and other media platforms about the serious consequences of mob lynching and mob violence.