Supreme Court Inquires About Kanhaiya Lal Amid Plea Over Lynchings

The accused, Riyaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad, were arrested within hours of the incident. A bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Aravind Kumar, and Justice Sandeep Mehta referred to the Kanhaiya Lal murder and asked petitioning lawyers to not be selective when presenting such cases. The court highlighted the case of Kanhaiya Lal, who was lynched in Rajasthan allegedly after he shared a social media post in support of Nupur Sharma, an ex Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson who made remarks about Prophet Mohammad.

The counsel for the state of Gujarat argued that the PIL was specifically highlighting the lynching of Muslims only, to which senior advocate Archana Pathak Dave countered, stressing that the state must protect people of all communities. The court agreed, emphasizing the need to ensure cases are not presented selectively. Advocate Pasha claimed that only Muslims were being lynched, leading Justice Gavai to caution him about the submissions made to the court.

The matter was then postponed to after the summer vacation, which runs from May 20 to July 7. In July last year, the court sought responses from the center and six states – Maharashtra, Odisha, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh – to the PIL filed by the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The PIL claimed a lack of action by these states despite a 2018 Supreme Court ruling directing tough stances on hate crimes, including lynching by cow vigilantes.

The court noted that so far, only Haryana and Madhya Pradesh had filed responses regarding action taken and gave the other states six weeks to file their statements. It was in this context that Justice Aravind Kumar asked about the killing of Kanhaiya Lal.