PRAYAGRAJ, July 15 -- The Allahabad high court has directed the state government to file a better counter-affidavit (reply) with regard to compliance with the Supreme Court's guidelines/directions laid down in Tehseen S. Poonawalla v. Union of India (2018) on preventing and addressing incidents of mob lynching and mob violence. A division bench comprising Justice Siddharth and Justice Avnish Saxena sought the affidavit while dealing with a petition filed by the brother of a 37-year-old man killed on suspicion of slaughtering cattle in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district last year. The present petition seeks a probe into the alleged incident by a special investigating team (SIT) and Rs 50 lakh as compensation for the family of the deceased. The counsel for the petitioner argued that the state had not implemented the mandatory safeguards outlined in the Tehseen Poonawalla ruling, which were mentioned as remedial measures, including the top court's directions regarding prompt FIR registration, nodal officer oversight, timely charge sheet filing and compensation. The high court, in its order, recorded that only the investigating officer had filed a counter-affidavit in the matter, and the U.P. government had not shown any steps taken in line with the binding directions of the apex court. "Thus, the division bench remarked that the U.P. government should file a better counter affidavit/compliance affidavit keeping in view the directions of the apex court in the case of Tehseen S. Poonawalla within a period of three weeks," the bench observed. Noting that the FIR should have been lodged by the police under Section 103(2) of the BNS (mob lynching) but was instead registered under Section 103(1) (Murder), the court stayed the investigation in the FIR until the next date of hearing. The court, in its order dated July 10, directed that the matter will now be heard next on August 5. In the present writ petition, the petitioner alleged that the state government has failed to formulate a Lynching/Mob Violence Compensation Scheme in compliance with the provisions of Section 357A of the criminal procedure code (CrPC), despite the explicit and binding direction in the Tehseen Poonawalla case, which constitutes 'grave' and 'wilful' violation of the rule of law. The petition also requested the court to direct the U.P. government to take disciplinary action against the police officials involved in the matter, as per the Supreme Court's directions to ensure accountability. It also requested the court to direct the government of India to launch public awareness campaigns against mob violence and lynching, highlighting legal consequences, as directed by the Supreme Court. At around 3 am on December 30 last year, Shahedeen and a few others were allegedly caught by a mob for slaughtering a cow for meat. While the others managed to flee, Shahedeen was left behind and was brutally beaten by the mob for nearly an hour. He succumbed to the injuries the next day. Later, Moradabad police booked Shahedeen and his alleged accomplices under the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act....