The Bombay High Court today directed Maharashtra government to identify locations where it would keep cattle found unfit to be slaughtered during the coming Bakri-Eid festival on October 16.
A division bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M S Sonak directed the Animal Husbandry department of the state government to transport such animals under police custody and then give them back to the traders/onwers three days after the festival.
The court also asked the department to notify the abattoir in suburban Deonar, where cattle is brought for slaughtering, about the locations where they would house the unfit cattle. The abattoir can inform the concerned traders and owners.
The court was hearing an application filed by Khalid Qureshi, chairman of All Maharashtra Cattle Merchants Association, seeking a direction to the state government and NGO Bhartiya Govansh Rakshan Savardhan Parishad to return the cattle seized by them last year during Bakri Eid festival.
According to the application, following an order of the High Court passed on October 23, 2012, the government had handed over all unfit animals to the NGO to avoid illegal slaughtering. However, the NGO refused to return the animals to their owners after the festival.
"The unfit cattle shall be transported by the state government today and shall be returned to their rightful owners three days after the Bakri Eid festival which is on October 16. The animals, which were placed in the custody of the NGO last year, shall be duly returned to the owners this year," the court said.
The court said the animal husbandry department would work out the nodalities of how to return the cattle.
