PUNJAB AND HARYANA HC ASKED THE POWER OF GAU RAKSHAK VIGILANTES TO RAID THE HOUSES OF THE CITIZENS

4th May 2021

The Punjab and Haryana HC recently asked the Additional Advocate General of Haryana to address the court on the authority of Gau Raksha Vigilantes to raid the houses of citizens.

Facts

Mubbi Alias Mubin has filed an FIR against the Local Gau Raksha Dal led By the District president. As per the FIR, the Raksha dal raided the Petitioner's house and allegedly found a bull, cow and instruments of slaughter.

The Raksha Dal filed an FIR u/s 3, 8 (1) of the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015 and sec 511 of the IPC. Section 3 prohibits cow slaughter and sec 8 prohibits the sale of beef.

However, the case facts do not reveal whether cow slaughter took place or not and therefore could not attract sec 3 of the Act. Since no slaughtering took place, there are no questions of attracting sec 8. Lastly, the Gau Raksha Dal and its District President were not authorized to raid the house of the petitioner. They are themselves guilty of the offence of trespassing.

DECISION

The petitioner is directed to join the investigation and cooperate therewith. Learned Addl. A.G. Haryana is directed to address the Court on the power of vigilantes to raid the houses of the citizens. Such actions are prima facie illegal and amount to taking the law into their own hands by private individuals. This is contrary to the Rule of Law.

Author: Papiha Ghoshal