Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of news reports about communal threats issued against an Additional District and Sessions Judge who had sentenced a group of cow vigilantes to life imprisonment in a lynching case, and directed senior police and government officials to explain the steps taken to protect her.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Avanindra Kumar Singh passed the order on Wednesday, July 1, while hearing a pending suo motu reference concerning the security of judicial officers in the state, after taking note of reports that Additional District and Sessions Judge Tabassum Khan of Narmadapuram district was being targeted online on the basis of her religious identity.
Judge had convicted 14 in lynching case
Judge Khan had, on June 12, convicted 14 persons and sentenced them to life imprisonment for the 2022 mob lynching of truck driver Sheikh Lala Nazir Ahmed, who was beaten to death in Barakhar village while transporting cattle from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra, on suspicion of cattle smuggling.
The court had held that the accused had formed an unlawful assembly with the common intention of attacking the victim.
The verdict was followed by protests by groups describing themselves as cow protection organisations, with effigies of the judge being burnt and social media posts targeting her identity as a Muslim woman circulating widely. In one video that went viral, a man was seen using a derogatory slur against the judge and threatening violence across the state if the convicts were not released within 10 days.
Directly hampers judicial independence: HC
Terming the matter serious, the High Court observed that such conduct directly undermined the independence and fearless functioning of judicial officers. “We are of the opinion that such activities directly hamper the judicial independence and fearless working of our judicial officers,” the bench said.
The court underlined that judicial orders were amenable to scrutiny only through the appellate or revisional forums provided under law, and that a judge could not be threatened merely for passing an order that was not to the liking of a section of society.
As an interim measure, the court directed that police protection provided to Judge Khan through the Superintendent of Police, Narmadapuram, be continued. Though the state informed the court that protection had already been extended to the judge, the bench directed the Superintendent of Police to file an affidavit detailing the action taken against those responsible for the threats.
Deputy Advocate General Abhijeet Awasthy informed the court that a first information report (FIR) had already been registered in connection with the matter. Police in Seoni Malwa had earlier taken suo motu cognisance of the social media posts and initiated efforts to identify those behind the videos, officials had said.
The bench also directed the Additional Advocate General to file personal affidavits from the Director General of Police and the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), setting out the steps being taken against those responsible for the threats.
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