Madras HC stays central notification on bovine sales

The petitioner also states that the Rules would adversely affect the farmers’ right to life under Article 21 and even says that it will give cow vigilantes more fuel to push their agenda.

Set to lead the cattle battle to take on the Narendra Modi led Union government, the Kerala cabinet on Wednesday chose to call a meeting of all chief ministers against the Centre’s restrictions on cattle trade.

Protests including “beef fests” in states like Kerala have been held against the new decision; the Madras High Court today ordered the ban suspended for a month.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to PM Narendra Modi urging him to reconsider.

The division bench of the court, issuing notices to state and central governments, directed them to offer their replies in four weeks.

When a batch of petitions challenging the ban came up for hearing, the judges stayed the operation of the new rules banning the sale or purchase of bulls, cows, camel for slaughter houses or for sacrifice for religious goal.

Asserting that the Centre’s move aims to promote their “Hindutva ideology”, Yechury said that the former is not concerned about other important issues like job, health and education.

He had also said: “The seller and buyer [of cattle] have to ensure that the cattle has not been bought and sold in the market for slaughter purposes. We will not carry out the new rules”, Tripura’s Agriculture and Animal Resource Development Minister Aghore Debbarma told IANS.

Police on Wednesday said they had registered a case against eight persons in connection with the attack on Sooraj.

Tripura’s Left Front government will not implement the new cattle trade and slaughter rules as it is against the interests of the people, a state Minister said on Tuesday. “Centre can never decide what to eat and what not”, she added. Don’t follow that order. The administration should ensure that there is no confusion.

Tamil Nadu’s opposition party, DMK will be holding a protest led by working president M K Stalin on May 31 against the ban, the party said, that “the fundamental right to choice of food granted by the Constitution has been snatched away”.

The notification also prohibits the sale of the cattle to people outside the state without permission.

The petitioners in the Madras High Court have contended that the rules should have been approved by Parliament first. While the northern belt of the country is in favour of the ban the southern and the eastern part of India have built defences against it.

The court observed that there is no blanket ban on slaughtering the cattle or consuming the meat. Hence, the provision breached the “cardinal principle of federalism”.

However, a day after notifying the modifications, the ministry said that the animals for the objective of slaughtering could be procured directly from the farmers at their respective farms.

Men load a cow onto a truck in the Jantar Mantar area of New Delhi (Representational image).

“The central government is yet to send us the new cattle trade and slaughter rules”.