Madras HC stays Centre's cattle slaughter ban, Govt looks to re-examine rules

The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed by four weeks the enforcement of the Centre's contentious notification banning sale and purchase of cattle at animal markets for slaughter.

The interim order of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court came following protests in some states including Tamil Nadu and Kerala against the measure.

Under relentless opposition attack, the government, meanwhile, said it was examining "issues" raised by some state governments and trade organisations.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justices M V Muralidharan and C V Karthikeyan ordered a stay on the execution of the notification on two PILs for four weeks by when it directed the Centre to file its counter-affidavit on the petitions.

The PILs sought quashing of the provisions of Rule 22(b) (III) and Rule 22(e) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulations of Live stock Markets) Rules 2017 on the ground that they were contrary to the parent Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and the country's Constitution.

Petitioners Selvagomathy and Asik Ilahi Bhava also contended that the provisions breached the "cardinal principle of federalism" as it amounted to legislation in areas earmarked for state legislatures.

Allowing their prayer, the judges stayed the operation of the new rules banning sale and purchase of bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves and camels for slaughter from animal markets.

Referring to the contention of the petitioners that the notification related to food and hence ought to have been discussed in Parliament, the judges asked the Centre to respond to the point also in its counter-affidavit.

Meanwhile, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in New Delhi the government was examining the issues raised by states and trade organisations against the ban.

The ban, he said, was notified against the backdrop of some observations made by the Supreme Court and a parliamentary committee on preventing cruelty to animals.

The controversial decision is expected to hit export and domestic trade of meat and leather.

The Environment Ministry, which had notified the rules last week, has received 13 representations regarding those.

Officials in the Environment Ministry said they are studying them.

Earlier, a defiant West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday called the new rules "undemocratic and unconstitutional" and declared it would be challenged legally.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had termed the ban "anti-federal, anti-democratic and anti-secular", and shot off letters to his counterparts in other states asking them to "stand together" and oppose it. He also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the new regulations.

Banerjee on Tuesday asked the state police not to comply with the Centre's notification.

"What someone will eat is his or her personal choice. No one has the right to dictate. Don't follow that order. The state has not given any such order. The administration should ensure that there is no confusion. Until the state government gives an order (in this regard), don't follow it (the Centre's ban order)," she told an administrative review meeting in Barrackpore.

The TMC supremo had yesterday termed the Centre's notification "a deliberate attempt to encroach on the state's rights and destroy the federal structure".

Several places in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have witnessed protests during the past few days against the ban, with those opposed to it hosting 'beef fests' and saying the Centre's decision interfered with the food habits of people.

The petitioners said the provisions were notified on May 23 last when courts were on vacation. Such rules should have been discussed in parliament and approved by it. Rules prohibiting sale and purchase of animals violated the right to freedom of religion guaranteed under Constitution, they submitted.

"The slaughtering of animals for food, the food and culinary (items) made out of such animal flesh and offering sacrifice of animals are part of cultural identity of most communities in India, protected under the Constitution," the PILs said.

The farmers and other traders involved in the sale of cattle, and slaughter houses and their employees would be deprived of their right to livelihood, the petitions said.

The petitioners also contended that the matter came under the legislative domain of state legislatures and "breached the cardinal principle of federalism".

The cattle ban controversy came in the midst of a festering row over cow slaughter and consumption of beef.

Several groups have dragged even genuine cattle traders out of vehicles, and beaten them up mercilessly, at times to death, over the last several months. In one instance, a Dalit family was flogged for skinning a dead cow in Gujarat's Una, while a Muslim man was beaten to death in Dadri near Delhi on suspicion of storing and consuming beef.

Some opposition leaders have claimed the new rules to regulate the livestock market was part of the RSS-BJP "agenda" to impose a nation-wide ban on beef consumption.