From Print
Damudor Arambam
(writer is a Criminal Justice Fellow at TISS, Mumbai)
Mob justice refers to putting a person to death, eviction of a person and destruction of one’s property or undressing and beating suspected criminals without following the law. This denies the accused person a right to a fair hearing before a competent court and in many cases, a right to life. It is a situation where the public in the most haphazard way decides to unleash group action on alleged criminals.
The practice is so rampant and it is a violation of human rights. It is carried out by men and women in groups and there is a tendency for perpetrators to do it in groups as opposed to individual action. In terms of gender, more men tend to participate in the act than women. One of the foundations of an open and democratic society is access to justice and legal remedies – an ideal situation that incidences of mob justice unfortunately render impotent. This is essentially because access to justice and legal remedy is an essential precondition for the protection of human rights when they have been violated or if they are under threat of being violated. It is thus, the basis for the establishment and sustenance of the rule of law.
Access to justice is therefore a fundamental right that has to be enjoyed absolutely by everyone. What the access to justice right entails is that every person should have access to competent courts of law or any other institution such as the National Human Rights Commission, which have got power to administer justice.
The practice of Mob justice continues to attract a lot of attention globally particularly in developing countries in the face of global efforts to promote human rights. Mob justice or “instant justice” is when usual people take the law into their own hands and aggressively carry judgment and punishment on a suspected criminal. The mob becomes the executor of the law as this act is a direct and undeniable violation of human rights, taking illegal actions without following the due process and in so doing putting the rest of the public at threat alike.
Human Rights are lawfully guaranteed by human rights law, protecting individuals and groups against actions that interfere with fundamental freedoms and human dignity.
Mob justice explicitly violates two articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—the right to a fair trial (Article 10) and the right to stand innocent of a crime before being proved guilty (Article 11) and violate article 21 of India’s constitution dealing with the right to life.
The increase of mob justice continues to take over our airwaves and make newsworthy headlines. This illegal chain of actions has engrossed and engaged various reactions from security agencies, human rights bodied and activists, renowned radio commentators, criminologists, clergy, traditional rulers and a section of general populace.
Today Northeast is reeling in the grip of a culture of mob violence and vigilante justice, where the local populace are so eager to deliver their brand of justice like beaten to death, tonsuring or public humiliation of any person who they considered guilty and demolition of the houses of such persons. In North East India, nowadays, every single day, we often hear news items from both electronic and print media new narrating and showing the mayhem of mob justice. Scarcely a day comes by with no individual hearing, reading or encountering the incapacitating and gruesome scenes of mob justice in our various communities.
Recently in a shocking incident of mob justice, a 1,500 strong crowd broke into a jail in Dimapur district in Nagaland in North East India, and lynched a man accused of raping a girl. The man, identified as 35-year-old Syed Farid Khan, was in custody after being arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a girl who was his neighbour multiple times.
Mob justice merely takes time for mob to attack suddenly on an alleged crime suspect and the mob makes a decision whether or not to give out justice in their individuals’ illegal line of attack. It more often than not takes the form of baseless, unfounded and unlawful brutality. Mob justice usually occurs very fast, unpredictably and dangerously.
Mob justice takes numerous forms and shapes: spanking suspected robbers to death; slashing suspected criminals; stripping alleged criminals bare and pounding them with blocks, firewood and iron rods till they die; subjecting alleged criminals to embarrassing and undignified treatments and occasionally setting them in flames. Some sufferers have by a hair’s breadth escaped the various punishment connected to mob justice and at the same time as others have been unlucky and ill-fated to stay alive to present description of the tribulation of individual encounters.
The fact that mob justice is so rarely investigated, let alone punished, amounts to an implicit acceptance of this practice by state authorities. The state has an obligation under national and international law to provide security for all its citizens, including those who are suspected of crimes.
Mob justice creates a series of violence, creates a tradition of fear, and discards individual responsibility and liability for brutal acts that are committed and perpetuated in the name of ensuring justice. In spite of all the constitutional provisions, international laws and the independent judiciary arm of government in India that offer satisfactory and sufficient guarantee and protection of each person, from brutality and stopping people from involving themselves in mob justice, this illegal practice is done always.
Currently, we reside in a democratic country founded and established on the rule of law and the principles of human dignity and the advancement of human rights and freedoms. Despite the open chorus of disapproval against the act of mob justice to alleged criminals, the practice is increasing every day. Therefore, this culture of lawlessness, violence and impunity noticeably, has the probable for needless devastation of properties and loss of blameless lives. It is thorny to come to terms with why; in this modern and democratic dispensation inhabitants resort to mob justice to mete out justice in North East India.
English
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