High Court of Himachal Pradesh High Court of Himachal Pradesh

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Friday passed fresh orders asking the Centre to ban cow slaughter in the country beside imposing prohibitions on import and export of the cow/calf and sale of beef and beef products within next six months time.

Rejecting Centre’s plea that the subject falls in entry 15 of the State List and it’s left to the state governments to take a call on the issue, the court noted that subject falls in entry 17 of the Concurrent List.

In an order that runs over 71 pages, a division Bench comprising Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Sureshwar Thakur recalled that it had already passed a similar order on October 15, 2015 directing the Government of India (GoI) to enact a law prohibiting cow slaughter and beef sale.

The bench said “The directions issued by this court on October 14, 2015 to Union of India to enact law prohibiting slaughtering of cow/calf, import or export of cow/calf, selling of beef or beef products are reiterated. The necessary steps be taken within six months from today. A copy of this order be also sent to the National Law Commission for its kind perusal.”

In the judgment, the court has also traced several documents and constituent assembly debates to assert importance of cow, on both economic (farm economy) and religious terms, and overwhelming sentiments in favour of ban on cow slaughter.

The order came after a petition was filed by state-based Hindu organisation, Bhartiya Govansh Rakshan Sanverdhan Parishad, which had sought intervention of the high court for protection of cows asking for a complete ban on cow slaughter.

“There is no proper arrangement for food, medicine and infrastructure for cows. The cows are found abandoned, also transported outside and brutally slaughtered. There is dire need to construct modern gaushallas/gausadans to protect abandoned cows. There should be compulsory registration of the cattle as well as gausadans/gaushallas and a complete ban on cow slaughter in India,” the petition sought.

The court also issued specific directions to the Chief Secretary (Himachal Pradesh) to release funds for construction of gaushalas and gausadans in the state as so far only Rs 5.38 crore has been released.

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