New Delhi, July 30: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will head an empowered Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to suggest measures to combat lynchings. The government panel was constituted last year and will continue functioning under Amit Shah, an official told The Hindu. Shah was recently appointed as chair of a government panel to prevent workplace sexual harassment.

The GoM on mob lynching has External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot as its members. Previously, the panel had met twice. However, no meeting has been held since Shah's appointment. The previous GoM had received a report from a high-level committee headed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba. After Madhya Pradesh And UP, Rajasthan Government to Enact Law Against Mob Lynching.

The committee had reportedly suggested measures such as tightening of the law by inserting clauses in the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure through parliamentary approval. Last week, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre, National Human Rights Commission and eleven state governments on a petition seeking direction to stop increasing mob lynching incidents targeting the minority community in the country.

On July 17, 2018, the Supreme Court had urged the Parliament to enact a law against mob lynching and violence by cow vigilantes, describing these incidents as "horrendous acts of mobocracy". The top court had issued a slew of directions to the government to provide "preventive, remedial and punitive measures" to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2019 01:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).