New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said, "Vigilantism is not permissible, needs to be checked" in a follow-up hearing for the Tehseen Poonawalla case, LiveLaw reported.

The top court, while hearing the Poonawalla case in 2018, had issued several directions to the Union and state governments concerning measures that need to be taken to prevent lynching. The matter was posted again to monitor the follow-up action taken by the governments, LiveLaw reported.

The bench, comprising of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Bela Trivedi, accepted Attorney General of India R Venkataramani’s suggestion and directed the home ministry to call a meeting of state department heads for consolidation of data in compliance with the preventive and remedial measures passed in the 2018 judgement.

Watch: Why Doesn't the Government Have Separate Mob Lynching Data?

The court also directed the states to file a status report before the home ministry and submit year-wise data in which complaints were made and FIRs registered, the report said.

A Supreme court bench comprising of Justice Deepak Mishra, A.M. Khanwalikar and DY Chandrachud in 2018 had held that it was the state’s duty to ensure that no individual or core group takes the law in their own hands.

“Authorities which are conferred with the responsibility to maintain law and order in the states have the principal obligation to see that vigilantism, be it cow vigilantism or any other vigilantism of any perception, does not take place," the court had said.

The court had also said that growing intolerance and polarisation “cannot be permitted to become the normal way of life or the normal state of law and order in the country.”

Calling such incidents a creeping threat, the top court had warned that mob violence could grow into a “typhoon-like monster” adding that the increase in such cases could be attributed to increasing fake news and misinformed “frenzied mobs”.

The court, in its 2018 judgement, had asked states to comply with preventive and remedial measures which included designation of a senior police officer as the nodal officer in each district to prevent such cases. The court also directed the police to patrol sensitive areas that were prone to such breakouts.

The court had directed state governments to prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme under the provisions of Section 357A of the CrPC . It had also ruled that cases of lynching and mob violence shall be specifically tried by designated court/fast track courts earmarked for that purpose in each district.

However, the apex court had pulled up the Union and 10 state governments in 2019 for not implementing the directions issued by it to curb mob lynching and violence, The Wire had reported.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta had issued notices to the home ministry and state governments on a petition filed by Anti-Corruption Council of India Trust. The ten states that were asked to respond were Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

In 2022, the Hindu had reported that anti-mob lynching bills passed by four state assemblies were at various levels of non-implementation. The Jharkhand Assembly had passed an anti-mob violence legislation in December 2022 but the bill had not received the Governor’s nod, the report said.

The Rajasthan Assembly had also passed an anti-mob violence legislation in 2019 but it was “under inter-ministerial consultation with State Government/Union Ministries/ Departments,” the MHA had said responding to an RTI filed by the Hindu.

Manipur's 2018 legislation was also under examination by the ministry while West Bengal's legislation had not been sent to the MHA, the Hindu report said.

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