New rules don’t prohibit cattle slaughter, says Kerala high court

Source – indiatimes.com

KOCHI: The Kerala high court on Wednesday observed that the Union government’s newly-introduced rules did not prohibit slaughter of cattle or eating beef. The state government, meanwhile, decided to escalate its protest against the notification.

A division bench led by Chief Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh made the oral observation while considering a public interest litigation challenging the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017, notified on May 23.

Questioning how the petitioner is aggrieved, the court pointed out that there was no ban on slaughtering cattle in the rules but they only restrict selling cattle for slaughter in animal markets. The rules stop at that and they don’t prohibit selling cattle from home or other places, the bench said.

The court also noted that Article 48 of the Constitution mandates a ban on slaughtering cattle but only sale of cattle for slaughter in markets is restricted as per the new rules. In the absence of cause for the petitioner to be aggrieved, as sale or consumption of beef is not banned, there is no cause to file a petition, it said.

Further, the bench said a tense situation was prevailing as people have not read the rules and expressed surprise over the Madras high court’s decision to stay the rules. A Madurai bench of the Madras high court had on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the central notification for four weeks.

With the court expressing its views, the petitioner’s counsel sought permission for withdrawing the petition and the court dismissed the petition as withdrawn.