The Supreme Court will, on 15 June, hear a petition that challenges the centre’s notification banning the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets. The petition has been filed by a Hyderabad resident.
An Environment Ministry notification, dated 23 May, banned the sale of cattle for slaughter under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The ministry has allowed cattle trade only among farmland owners for the purpose of farming. Under the special section, cattle traders are required to submit an “undertaking that the animals are bought for agriculture purposes and not for slaughter.”
The news sparked an uproar, with opposition parties accusing the ruling party of dictating people’s food habits.
While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called the ban a “deliberate attempt to encroach on the state's powers and destroy the federal structure,” Kerala Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan wrote to the Centre, saying the notification was “against the principles of secularism and federalism enshrined in our Constitution”.
(With inputs from India Today.)
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