Bengaluru/New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to six states, including Karnataka over recent cases of cow vigilantism by ‘Gau rakshak’ groups and sought their responses to a plea challenging certain laws that give protection to vigilante cow protection groups in the country.

The court issued notice to BJP ruled Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Congress ruled Karnataka.

The notice comes on the plea filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla following violence in Alwar, Rajasthan, stating that there has been sharp rise in instances of cow vigilantism in country, thus seeking ban on the organisations.

The petition also sought immediate action against Cow Protection Groups indulging in violence.

The PIL has also referred to a central notification, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Establishment and Regulation of Societies for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Rules, 2001, which provides for establishment of “Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals” and gives it the power to search and seize animals as well as the licenses of the people found involved.

The bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra sought responses by 3 May.

It may be mentioned here that 50-year-old, Pehlu Khan died on Monday in Alwar, Rajasthan, after being brutally beaten up by a group of self-proclaimed ‘gau rakshaks’. He was a part of a group of men that was transporting cows in a highway in Rajasthan’s Alwar last week.