A single judge of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday declined to put on hold the operation of the provisions banning the sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulations of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017.
The court, while declining the plea of a clutch of meat traders, observed that the Supreme Court had directed courts to exercise judicial restrain while judging the constitutional validity of the legislation, including delegated ones, as there was a presumption in favour of the constitutionality of the statutes.
The court could declare such legislation unconstitutional only when there was a clear violation of constitutional provisions beyond reasonable doubt. The court added that it was not inclined to put on hold the impugned rules even though it found “strong prima facie case for the petitioners”.
The court observed that there was “force” in the contention of the petitioners that the rules, which prohibited sale of cattle for slaughter in cattle markets and prohibits purchase of cattle from cattle markets for slaughter, were beyond the scope of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, which deals neither with the livestock nor with regulation of the activities in markets.
It was all more so since slaughtering was a permissible activity under the Act. Besides, preservation, protection and improvement of livestock and regulation of markets being a State subjects falling under the State list, there was force in the contention of the petitioners that the Central government could not make a subordinate legislation prohibiting trade of cattle for slaughter in animal markets under Section 38 of the Act brought in with a view to preventing cruelty to animals with a provision excluding slaughtering of cattle for food from the ambit of the Act.
It was seen that the exhaustive definition given in the rules for ‘animal market’ had created a situation where only those persons who rear cattle in their houses/farms alone would be able to slaughter them.
The petitions were filed by the Kozhikode Meat Workers Association and meat traders.
The court, while admitting the petitions, directed the Centre and other respondents to file an affidavit. The court posted the petition for final hearing on June 28.
