J&K HC rejects plea seeking enactment of law on cow slaughter
Court puts onus on lawmakers
The Jammu and Kashmir high court has refused to entertain a PIL seeking a direction to the government to enact a law prohibiting cow slaughter in the Union Territory. The PIL had also sought a direction from the court to make the slaughter of cows in J&K a cognizable offence with strict punishment.
A division bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal while disposing of the PIL filed by an NGO, Animals Value Environment (SAVE), through its chairperson Devinder Kour Madan, asked it to raise its grievance before J&K’s Chief Secretary (CS) by submitting a comprehensive representation in this regard. The official, the court said, on consideration of the representation “will do the needful”.
The NGO actually wanted re-enactment of a 124year-old law that banned the slaughter of cow and other bovine animals and sale of beef in J&K but was annulled with the erstwhile state being formally stripped of its special status and split up into two UTs on October 31, 2019, nearly three months after the Centre withdrew the State’s special status it enjoyed under Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution.
Sections 298-A, 298-B, 298-C and 298-D of the erstwhile state’s own Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) also declared slaughter of bovine animals including cow and the sale of beef punishable offences. The beef ban was one of the 153 state laws repealed by the Centre under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. The RPC has since been replaced by Indian Penal Code (IPC).
After hearing the counsel of the petitioner S.S. Ahmad and J&K’s advocate-general D.C. Raina, the court said, “It is settled law that no writ of mandamus would lie for issuing directions for enacting a particular law. It is for the lawmakers i.e. the legislature of the UT of J&K to enact a law on a given subject. The said task cannot be given to any of the respondents”.
Since there is no legislature in place in J&K presently, the court held that “at the moment no such law can be considered for being enacted”.