HYDERABAD: A Hyderabad high court judge said on Friday that cow is "sacred national wealth" which is a "substitute to Mother and God". The observation comes days after a Rajasthan HC judge had said that cow should be declared a national animal.While dismissing the plea of a cattle trader from whom 63 cows and two bulls were seized, Justice B Siva Sankara Rao of Hyderabad HC quoted from a Supreme Court order and said that it is a settled legal position that there is no fundamental right to Muslims to insist on slaughter of healthy cows on the occasion of Bakrid.The judge also directed that veterinary doctors of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh who drive healthy cows to slaughter houses by fraudulently certifying that they are unfit for giving milk should be brought under the penal net of the AP Cow Slaughter Act, 1977. He also directed that the Act should be amended and the offences under it should be made non-bailable and cognizable.In Andhra and Telangana, slaughter of cows is allowed if they are certified to be old and unproductive.Cattle trader Ramavath Hanuma had moved the HC after a trial court in Nalgonda had rejected his petition for custody of 65 bovines which were seized from him. The cattle were seized from Kanchanapalli village and Hanuma had insisted that he had brought them there for grazing. The prosecution had alleged that Hanuma, along with other accused, had bought the cattle from farmers for slaughtering them so that cow meat could be distributed during the Bakrid festival.Dismissing Hanuma's plea, Justice Rao said there was no need to interfere in the trial court's order. "Whether a person is entitled to claim interim custody of cows and bulls seized from him when he was allegedly taking them to a slaughter house? This question needs to be posed and answered in view of the national importance of cows which are substitutes to Mother and God," Justice Rao said in his order.The judge said that Emperor Babar saw the wisdom of prohibiting the slaughter of cows as a religious sacrifice and directed his son Humayun to follow this example. He added that emperors Akbar, Jehangir, and Ahmad Shah had also prohibited cow slaughter.The judge also sought amendment of Section 11 and 26 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and to consider enhancement of punishment on par with IPC section 429 which carries jail term up to five years.