HC refuses to stay Maharashtra govt’s ban on possessing beef

MUMBAI: Beef-eaters in the state will have to be content with other meat available in the market because the Bombay high court on Wednesday refused to stay two provisions of the Maharashtra Preservation of Animals Act, 1976, which prohibit and criminalise possession of beef.

The division bench of justice VM Kanade and justice MS Sonak, however, restrained the state government from taking any further coercive steps pursuant to First Information Reports (FIRs) lodged after the 1995 amendment imposing a complete ban on the slaughter of bulls and bullocks was brought into force on March 4, 2015.

The interim order was passed on a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of sections 5(d) and 9( a) contending that the two sections were irrelevant to the objectives sought to be achieved by the Maharashtra Animal Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976, which has been enacted for the purpose of protecting cows and other milch and drought cattle in the interest of agriculture economy.

They contended that in reality the sections served only one purpose of preventing citizens from eating beef, as they indirectly impose a ban on the import from places outside Maharashtra where slaughter of bulls and bullocks in permitted, and thus encroached upon the choice of food of people.

The bench refused to stay operation of sections 5( d) and 9( a) primarily in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court that operation of an enactment should not be stayed unless it is shown to be manifestly unjust or glaringly unconstitutional.

CONTINUED ON P8

RELATED REPORT, P5

Devendra Fadnavis: