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KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court held on Tuesday, a day before Eid-uz-Zoha, that sacrifice of the cow was not an integral part of the festival and was not a religious requirement under Islam.

The division bench of Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee cited a Supreme Court ruling to underline the observations, directing the state government to incorporate this clause in its notice to be issued regarding the observance of the festival on Wednesday.

The bench also asked the government to mention in the notice that the slaughter of animals, including cows and buffaloes, was “strictly prohibited... in open public space”.

The division bench expressed its “surprise” that the state government did not have the infrastructure or the machinery to implement the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950, despite the Act being “68 years old”. “It is not a new Act,” the order said, adding, “One could have definitely expected that the state, by this time, would have its machinery in place.”

State gets time till next year

The division bench passed the order after state advocate-general Kishore Dutta sought a revision application for an order passed by the same court on August 16. “The necessary infrastructure to strictly adhere to the provisions of the Act is not available with the state,” Dutta said. He also submitted that the state did not have enough slaughterhouses and there was also a dearth of veterinary surgeons and officers. Dutta added that the government would take steps to adhere to all the provisions of the Act by the next year, prompting the division bench to express its “surprise”. But it allowed the government time till the next calendar year to implement all these provisions while adding the two important clauses to be included in this year's notice itself.

Advocate Meghnad Dutta, appearing for Rajyashree Chaudhuri, said they would wait for the government to follow the order next year.

