A group of 30 individuals including Dalit activists urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn a ban on cattle slaughter, saying it is a violation of "one's right to choose his food" and "supply of essential proteins".

India is the world's fifth-largest consumer and second-largest exporter of beef, but groups close to the BJP oppose the killing of cows as the animal is considered sacred by many Hindus. Since the party came to power at the Centre in 2014, its leaders and affiliated outfits have ratcheted up the rhetoric on cow protection and beef ban.

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

Senior lawyer Indira Jaising who will lead the fight in the apex court argued that the choice to consume beef is a "fundamental right under the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution".

The move came on a day a cow protection group, the Akhil Bharat Krishi Goseva Sangh, also approached the SC to challenge a Bombay High Court order allowing possession and consumption of beef brought into Maharashtra from outside while upholding a ban on cow slaughter in the state.

The top court issued a notice to the Devendra Fadnavis government and Centre on the group's plea and sought their reply within four weeks. The appeal of the 30 individuals from Maharashtra led by activist Swatija Paranjpe, which will be heard on Monday, also demands "decriminalisation of food habits".

All Indian states except Kerala, West Bengal and the ones in the Northeast have imposed some regulations on beef consumption, with violations attracting imprisonment ranging from three years to seven years and a fine of up to Rs 10,000.

LOWER SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRATA CONSUME BEEF

Jaising pointed out to the SC that those who consume beef as a part of their regular diet are predominantly from the lower socio-economic strata of society, such as members of the SC/ST and Muslim communities. So the effect of the restriction on the access to cheap and nutritious food that is part of their regular diet is very intense and it cannot be legally sustained.



"No person can be compelled to eat what he or she does not wish to eat as an alternative source of food, since the right to eat food of one's choice is part of the fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution," said her petition. "Beef is known to contain protein which is necessary for human survival and is an affordable form of food which cannot be denied to those who wish to eat it."

States ruled by the BJP, such as Maharashtra, have in the past two years broadened and enforced long-dormant restrictions on cattle slaughter and Hindu vigilantes have stepped up attacks on traders to enforce the prohibition.

The plea in the SC challenges the same Bombay High Court order that sustained the ban on cow slaughter in the state. "Our petition for the time being pertains to Maharashtra but if our challenge to the Maharashtra Act is upheld, the apex court's order will have a bearing on all states where ban on beef consumption or cow slaughter for beef is imposed citing state Acts", Jaising told Mail Today.

INFRINGEMENT OF CULTURE AND IDENTITY

The mob lynching of a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh last year over suspicions that he butchered a calf triggered a nationwide debate over beef consumption and cow slaughter, with minority groups and activists accusing the BJP and Hindu hardliners of smudging India's secular fabric.

Dalit and Muslim groups have organised a string of beef-eating festivals and stopped their traditional occupation of removing cattle carcasses to protest the infringement on their culture and identity.

Maharashtra had passed the law banning the possession and import of been, apart from slaughter in March last year.

HC STRIKES DOWN LAWS



The high court upheld the ban on slaughter but allowed people to consume beef imported from other states, observing that a ban on imported beef would be "an infringement of right of privacy, which is a fundamental right". The court also struck down a rule that provided one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 for those possessing beef, calling it "unconstitutional" as it violated a person's right to live.

The bench said the objective of the ban was to protect "the cow and its progeny", not to prevent citizens from eating beef that may be brought from a state or a country where there is no prohibition on cow slaughter.

The state had unsuccessfully argued that striking down these provisions will make it difficult to implement the beef ban.

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