A Hindutva activist goon from UP can now fearlessly and openly boast that he cracked the skull of a student’s father at the Jantar Mantar protest because of his political connections. The culprit appears quite confident he will be protected with police now stating that the hospital report shows no skull cracking but only minor hurt not justifying more serious charges. In 2018 the Supreme Court issued strict guidelines against vigilantism for the Centre and States to implement. However, CJI Surya Kant in February 2026 reportedly opines that with various States enacting cow protection and moral policing laws, and with their own police forces failing to control communal violence against minorities, it becomes difficult for the Supreme Court to enforce or follow up on the 2018 directives which basically stated that mobocracy cannot be the new normal and extrajudicial groups cannot be allowed to exist. It is a sad state of affairs where vigilantes freely operate under State patronage and no State is implementing the police reforms directives issued by the Supreme Court in 2006. A society where citizens punish instead of courts is governed by the rule of the mob.
JOHN ERIC GOMES, Porvorim
