Uttarakhand High Court Permits Animal Slaughter for Bakri Eid in Haridwar

The HC stayed state government’s blanket ban on animal slaughter in Haridwar for the occasion Bakri Eid on 10 July.

The Uttarakhand government issued a notification on 3 March 2021, imposing a blanket ban on all animal slaughter in Haridwar district.

(Photo: Jaivardhan Singh Channey/ The Quint)

The Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday, 7 July, has permitted the slaughter of animals for Bakri Eid festival in Manglaur town of Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district.

The high court stayed state government’s 2021 order on a blanket ban on animal slaughter in Haridwar, with respect to its applicability to Manglaur on the occasion of Bakri Eid, which falls on 10 July. The order was passed by the bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and JRC Khulbe.

An individual named Faisal Hussain had appealed to the court as an intervener to allow slaughter of animals on Eid contending that it is an essential religious practice in Islam, as per a Bar and Bench report.

Blanket Ban on Animal Slaughter

The plea urged the court to allow slaughter of animals in legally-compliant slaughterhouses in Manglaur municipality area.

He claimed that the slaughterhouses have not been in operation for the past year, since the government issued a notification on 3 March 2021, imposing a blanket ban on all animal slaughter in Haridwar district.

The court has directed intervener and the Manglaur municipality to inform butchers that animal slaughter is permitted only in such legally compliant slaughterhouses.

(With inputs from Bar and Bench.)