JODHPUR: A

and its calf had to be produced before a

here on Friday following a dispute between two men over its ownership. When the cow was brought outside the courtroom, the magistrate came out and asked the claimants to stand beside it. The magistrate observed the affection of the cow towards the two men, so that a conclusion could be drawn as to who might be the animal's real owner.

After observing the cow and its claimants for some time, metropolitan magistrate Madan Choudhary reserved his observations. He will now proceed with examining two claimants’ statements on next hearing on April 15 in order to settle the

. It started in August 2018 when the case was first registered with the city’s

police station. A police constable, Om Prakash, and a teacher, Shyam Singh, had claimed ownership over the cow.

“The police tried to solve the matter at its own level through various methods but all went in vain. We also made both the claimants to stand beside the cow and call her but the cow did not respond to either of them,” said a police officer from the police station. The police then sent the animal to a cow shelter under the watch of CCTV cameras as one of the two men claimed that the cow sucks its own milk. But even this did not work as the cow had turned dry by then.

The matter then reached the court. Initially, the petition had been rejected by the metropolitan court. But an appeal was filed before the Sessions court, which directed the metropolitan court to re-examine the matter and report back. Finally, the metropolitan magistrate ordered that the cow be brought before him. On Friday, the magistrate exercised various methods with the two claimants to ascertain if either of them could be the cow’s owner. The magistrate also tried to settle the matter amicably but Shyam Singh refused saying that he has a strong devotion towards the cow and cannot give it to anybody.

Counsel for the other claimant Om Prakash said that statements of both the disputing parties have been recorded.