NEW DELHI: Hearing on a petition filed by an Animal welfare activist seeking to ban cow slaughter in all the Indian states, the apex court has on Friday made it clear that it cannot interfere in the matters of the state governments. It further added that a decision on banning cow slaughtering will be taken purely by the states and that the Supreme court has no say in it.
The petitioner argued that most of the states have already banned cow slaughter and that a complete ban throughout India is necessary to counter inter-state illegal transportation of cattle. “Most of the states have already banned cow slaughter. This has resulted in the transportation of cattle from banned states to those where it is permissible. Also, there are no proper guidelines or a central policy to regulate the inter-state transportation of cattle”, the petitioner argued.
Responding to the PIL, the bench of Cheif justices J S Khehar and N V Ramana said, “A state can either decide in favor of banning cow slaughter or may accept it. It is completely up to the state governments to take a call, we cannot interfere.”
Further, the Supreme Court clarified that it has already ordered the Central government back in July 2016, to frame strict rules in order to stop inter-state transportation of cattle. “As per our earlier guidelines, committees have been put in place and any concern should be addressed by them”, the court observed while dismissing the petition.
As of now only a few Indian states allow cow slaughter and serving of beef in restaurants. They are viz., Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, West Bengal and Kerala, the Times of India reports.
