The Madras High Court directed Tamil Nadu to ensure that no cow or calf is slaughtered on the eve of Bakrid or on any other day in the state. The bench said only legally approved slaughter houses can operate and ordered senior officials to enforce the ruling.
The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to ensure that no cow or calf is slaughtered on the eve of Bakrid or on any other day in the state.
“We allow this writ petition with a direction to the State of Tamil Nadu to ensure that no cow or calf is slaughtered on the eve of Bakrid or on any other day,” a division bench comprising Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice V Lakshminarayanan said while allowing a plea seeking direction to authorities concerned to take steps to prevent the slaughter of cows in public places.
The bench directed senior state officials, including the Chief Secretary and the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), to circulate necessary instructions to ensure full compliance with the ruling.
“The authorities particularly the Chief Secretary to the Government and the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) are obliged to issue suitable instructions to all the officials concerned to ensure that there is no breach of this order,” the court said.
The Court emphasised that animal slaughter cannot be carried out at makeshift or unauthorised locations and must be confined only to legally approved slaughter houses.
The directions were issued while hearing a public interest petition moved by Coimbatore resident K Surya alias K Surya Prasanth, who alleged that preparations were being made to slaughter cows in open and non-permitted areas during Bakrid festivities.
During the proceedings, the Bench expressed strong disapproval over an affidavit by a police official stating that temporary facilities had been identified for slaughter activities. The judges questioned the legality of such arrangements and observed that law enforcement agencies have no authority to independently earmark slaughter zones.
The Bench pointed out that only authorities empowered under the relevant municipal and statutory framework can recognise a location as a lawful slaughtering facility.
The judges also relied on Article 48 of the Constitution, which calls upon the State to work towards prohibiting the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle.
Citing Supreme Court precedents, the Bench reiterated that sacrificing cows during Bakrid is not regarded as an indispensable religious obligation in Islam.
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court observed that many Muslims do not sacrifice cows on BakrI’d day. Sacrifice of a cow on that day is not an obligatory overt act for a Musalman to exhibit his religious belief and idea,” the bench noted. “Sacrifice of any animal by the Muslims for the religious purpose on BakrI’d does not include slaughtering of cows as the only way of carrying out that sacrifice. Slaughtering of cows on this occasion is neither essential to nor necessarily required as part of the religious ceremony.”
The court took note of the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Animal Preservation Act, according to which no cow can be slaughtered unless it is over 10 years of age and is unfit for work and breeding, or it should have become permanently incapacitated for work or breeding due to injury, deformity or any incurable disease. It said that since this provision enables cow slaughter and is at variance with Article 48 of the Constitution of India, the provision will have to receive a strict construction.
