GoMs on lynchings on hold

GoMs on lynchings on hold

1. The government has put on hold Groups of Ministers (GoMs) constituted to suggest measures on anti-lynching due to upcoming lok sabha elections.
2. The Government had created a Group of Ministers (GoM),headed by Home Minister and the other committee headed by Union Home Secretary.Both the Government panel will suggest ways and legal framework to effectively deal with incidents of mob lynching.
3. The committee headed by Union Home Secretary had submitted its report to the GoM,but it was yet to finalise the recommendations.Among the measures suggested by the panel was tightening of law by inserting clauses in the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure through parliamentary approval.
4. This GoM was formed after Supreme Court had condemned the incidents of lynchings as “horrendous acts of mobocracy” and told Parliament to make lynching a separate offence.
5. As per the Constitution,‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects and State governments are responsible for controlling crime,maintaining law and order and protecting the life and property of the citizens.
6. At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings.The Indian Penal Code has provisions for unlawful assembly,rioting and murder but nothing that takes cognisance of a group of people coming together to kill (a lynch mob).