India top court stays cattle slaughter ban

Approves lower court ruling that said people have a basic right to choose their food

India’s top court yesterday stayed for three months a ban introduced by the Hindu nationalist government on the sale of cattle for slaughter.

The Supreme Court approved a lower court ruling that said people have a basic right to choose their food.

The court is expected to give a final ruling after the federal government reconsiders the issue in view of widespread criticism of its decision announced in May.

The government informed Chief Justice of India J. S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud yesterday that it was re-examining the ban and would bring in necessary changes by the end of August, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Under government rules issued in May, buyers and sellers at cattle markets or animal fairs would be required to pledge in writing that cows and other animals considered holy by Hindus would not be slaughtered for food or any other purpose.

ndia’s Supreme Court suspended yesterday a government ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter, a boost for the multibillion dollar beef and leather industries mostly run by members of the Muslim minority.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in May decreed that markets could only trade cattle for agricultural purposes such as ploughing and dairy production, on the grounds of stopping cruelty to animals.

The slaughter of cows, considered holy in Hinduism, was already banned in most parts of India, but Hindu hardliners and cow vigilante groups have been increasingly asserting themselves since Modi’s government came to power in 2014.

Muslims, who make up 14 per cent of India’s 1.3 billion people, said the May government decree against the beef and leather industry employing millions of workers was aimed at marginalising them.

Hardship

The Supreme Court, in issuing its decision, stressed the hardship that the ban on the trade of cattle for slaughter had imposed.

“The livelihood of people should not be affected by this,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar told a court packed with lawyers and representatives of the beef industry.

India’s meat and leather industries are worth more than $16 billion (Dh58 billion) in annual sales. After the decision, the government told the court it would modify and reissue its May order, Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha said.

The government could exclude buffalo from the ban — buffalo are not considered sacred — and buffalo meat constitutes the bulk of India’s “beef” exports.

The crackdown on the beef industry has become highly emotive with a wave of attacks on Muslims suspected of either storing meat or transporting cattle for slaughter. An estimated 28 people have been killed in cow-related violence since 2010.

Late last month, after months of silence on the violence, Modi condemned lynchings.

Media has reported at least two cases of attacks on Muslims since Modi spoke out.

Abdul Faheem Qureshi, the head of the Muslim All India Jamiatul Quresh Action Committee, which supports meat sellers, welcomed the court decision.

“We have to now restore the confidence of cattle traders that they can resume their business. It’ a victory for us,” said Faheem Qureshi, who had lodged a petition with the Supreme Court against the government’s ban.

‘Huge relief’

India exported 1.33 million tonnes of buffalo meat in the 2016/17 fiscal year to March 31, worth about $3.9 billion. The previous year, it exported 1.31 million tonnes. The Supreme Court order was also a boost for the leather industry, which supplies brands such as Inditexowned Zara and Clarks.

“The order has brought huge relief,” said Puran Dawar, chairman of Agra-based shoe exporter Dawar Footwear Industries.

Besides Muslims, the leather industry also employs lowercaste Hindus, mostly in menial jobs, in tanneries.

But a cow protection group said the government should have been more forceful in making its case in court.

“The government should have stood its ground by fighting for the implementation of the ban,” said Pawan Pandit, chairman of the India Cow Protection Group.

“Modi must respect the sentiments of millions of Hindus, who have supported his government,” Pandit said. I