According to an IndiaSpend research, the number of incidences of mob lynching is on the rise every year. The term “vigilance” is described by the Cambridge dictionary as “law enforcement conducted by a self-appointed group of persons without any legal authority.” People who want to enforce legal power without any legal grounds are involved in lynching instances.
A lynching occurs when a group of people kills a person, accusing him of committing an offence that is frequently motivated by religious prejudice or amusement. When one community’s beliefs about an issue disagree with the views of the other community, an unlawful act of mob-lynching occurs as a result of the conflict. In India, states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh have the largest number of cow-related mob attacks.

The country’s impact on mob lynching
In particular, there has been an upsurge in the frequency of lynching cases. Since the BJP administration came to office in 2014, there has been a rise in the frequency of such attacks. This act of people taking the law into their own hands due to a lack of understanding of the justice system poses a severe danger to the Rule of Law and Natural Justice concepts. Such activities have also posed a major threat to the country’s minority populations, and adequate measures must be made to prevent and deter such crimes.

The Supreme Court has ruled on lynchings by mobs.
In the case of Tehseen S. Ponawalla v. Union of India & others, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Dipak Mishra, and the three-judge bench denounced recent occurrences of mob lynching and mob attacks on Dalits and members of other communities. On July 17, 2018, he asked the parliament to draught and enact laws that would make mob lynching a separate crime and set punishments that would serve as a deterrent to future lynchings.

Furthermore, the bench argued that no one or group of individuals can take the law of the land into their own hands and impose punishment that they are not obligated to impose. Furthermore, the Chief Justice of India underlined the necessity of issuing orders for punitive, rehabilitative, and preventative measures.

Lynching punishments
In our country, there is no explicit legislation or legal provision dealing with lynchings or mob violence. However, the following statutes, which are currently part of the Indian Penal Code, provide for the penalty of mob lynching.

Section 302 of Indian penal code.
Section 304 of Indian penal code.
Section 325 of Indian penal code.
Section 34 of Indian penal code.
Section 120B of Indian Penal Code .

Conclusion
Mob lynching can occur for a variety of causes. Witch-hunting was one of the causes of mob violence, with 2000 mentally ill women being murdered because of rumours accusing them of kidnapping and murdering children. In India, religious conflagrations such as the 1984 Sikh riots, Anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, or the lynching of Ghulam Muhammad by Hindu Yuva Mahaini over his relationship with a Hindu girl in the neighbourhood have had a negative impact on the country.