India’s Supreme Court has asked federal and state governments to comply with its two- month-old instructions to end mob violence and lynching, which activists say shows the government’s failure to check hard-line Hindu violence.

The country’s top court on Sept. 24 asked all state governments to file action reports on its July 17 directions for governments to check mob violence, especially those linked to acts by vigilante groups protecting cows, a revered animal in Hinduism.

“There is a collapse of governance and law and order. Since the government is not taking the court direction seriously, the court has to intervene,” said Father Denzil Fernandes, director of the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in New Delhi.

The court directions included using media to tell masses that the street violence and mob killings will attract legal action and punishment. In order to check violence, it also asked to appoint district level police officers to stop the spread of irresponsible messages and to punish police who derelict their duty.