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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government’s move to ban sale and consumption of beef in Maharashtra. However, a division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice M S Sonak, on a bunch of petitions, asked the state government not to take any coercive steps for possessing beef for the next three months.
The petitions had opposed the ban on slaughter of cows, bulls and bullocks, and consumption and possession of their meat, introduced under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act, even if the animals were slaughtered outside Maharashtra. According to the petitions, this prohibits import of meat.
The petitions had said the ban violates the fundamental rights of a person to have his choice of food. However, the Advocate General Sunil Manohar argued that consuming beef was not a fundamental right.
The petitioners, including senior advocate Haresh Jagtiani, Jogeshwari resident Arif Kapadia and a Hindu-Muslim-Christian coalition of 29 Mumbai residents, had sought an interim stay on section 5 (d) of the MAPA Act. This provision makes it a criminal and cognisable offence to possess beef, even if the animal is slaughtered outside Maharashtra where it is legally permissible, punishable with a jail term of up to one year.
The court made it clear that the police will not invade the privacy of a citizen by entering their homes to find out if the meat in their house is beef. It asked the state government to file a detailed affidavit in four weeks and has scheduled the matter for hearing on June 25.
The Act bans the slaughter of calves and bullocks and allows only consumption of buffaloes. Those found keeping or consuming beef can face five years in prison and a fine of Rs 10,000, if convicted.
However, political parties and non-government organisations had strongly criticised the government’s decision and there have been many protests against it. Beef traders claim they will lose their jobs and also that the cost of other meat will shoot up.
Beef costs almost a third of mutton and is a popular red meat choice. Buffalo meat is largely exported and only eaten by 25 per cent of beef eaters.
