Stop illegal beef sale, HC to cops, BMC

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday turned the heat on the Mumbai police and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over their apathy in initiating any action against the alleged illegal sale of beef in certain areas like Agripada, Dongri, Naupada etc. The HC pulled up the authorities for shrugging off their responsibilities and passing the buck to each other over taking action against the illegal sale.

A division bench of Justice Rajendra Savant and Justice Sandeep Shinde said, “There has been too much of passing the buck to each other. Now we want to see some action from you (police and civic body). We are not at all satisfied by your work in this regard till now.” The judges were hearing a petition filed by Arun Kabadi alleging that beef is being illegally sold despite the HC’s judgement that has banned sale of beef in Maharashtra.

It may be noted that a division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka had passed a detailed judgement in 2016 upholding the decision of the Maharashtra government to ban the sale of beef. However, the judges had then held that beef can be sold only if it is brought in from some other state.

During the course of hearing, the police department that has been citing the ‘delay’ by the civic body in handing over equipments to ascertain if the meat is mutton or beef, sought time to file its affidavit.