The Supreme Court on Friday directed the chief secretaries and the directors general of police of all states and Union Territories to take strong and necessary measures to prevent attacks on Kashmiris and other minorities in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror strike.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notices to the Centre and 10 state governments seeking their response in connection with a plea on the issue.
Besides the Centre, the notices were issued to Bihar, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Punjab and Maharashtra.
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The bench directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to give wide publicity to the appointment of nodal officers so that people could immediately approach them in case Kashmiris or other minorities face threat or discrimination in any part of the country.
The nodal officers were appointed by various states to look into the issue following an advisory by the Centre.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on February 27.
The plea sought the court’s intervention in preventing attacks on Kashmiri students, besides prosecution of those indulging in hate speech and targeting of Kashmiris.
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“The Centre and the states have not been effective in curbing this mob violence and intimidation. On the contrary, it would appear that the respondents (Centre and states) may even be sympathising with the mobs. The lack of prompt action to restore law and order may be a way of giving indirect support to the vigilante groups,” it claimed.
During the hearing, the apex court asked the chief secretaries and the DGPs of all states and Union territories to take strong and necessary action to prevent attacks or boycott of Kashmiris.
The plea mentioned media reports about the attacks on Kashmiri students and said immediately after the Pulwama terror strike, mobs and vigilante groups engaged in vitriolic hate speech and began attacking and threatening Kashmir throughout the country.
It also mentioned Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy’s statement that people should stop visiting Kashmir and boycott everything from the state.
The petition, which was filed by advocate Tariq Adeeb, alleged that Kashmiri students had to lock themselves up in order to remain safe as mob violence erupted in Dehradun in Uttarakhand after the terror attack in Pulwama in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed on February 14.
(With ANI inputs)
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