The First Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu Government to “ensure that the interim order of the court denying permission for camel slaughtering is not violated.”
Dismissing a public interest litigation petition filed by Indian National League founder J. Abdul Raheem seeking to provide proper facilities for slaughtering camel on the day of Bakrid, Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan, made it clear that the officer in-charge of the local police station would be personally held responsible in case of any violation of the order.
However, during the hearing of the case, the judges made it clear that the court had not banned camel slaughtering, but had only temporarily denied permission since there were no proper abattoirs in the State. “The interim order was passed on the basis of the Centre’s stand that slaughtering of camels could not be permitted without proper facilities in accordance with the Central Acts on animal welfare,” it said.
At one stage, the petitioner’s counsel tried to persuade the court to adjourn the PIL shortly, saying: “Even the authorities are ready to provide us the facilities. I can produce the copy of the report made by the committee appointed for this purpose if the court could pass over the PIL shortly.” To this, the Bench responded: “We have no issue in passing over the matter. But we are not inclined to entertain this petition for the simple reason that what it seeks in effect is nullification of the interim order passed in a different batch of petitions.”
“We will examine all the issues related to camel slaughtering in the main petitions, and interim order has been passed only in connection with sacrifice of camels,” the judges added.
When the petitioner wanted the court to permit slaughtering at least for this year, the court said: “Even last year we permitted on assurance that rules will not be violated. But the rules were completely violated.”
On August 18, while hearing a batch of PILs moved against camel slaughtering, the Bench said: “It is trite to say that slaughtering of camels cannot be the same as slaughtering of goats. There is thus no facility in Tamil Nadu for proper slaughtering of camels where it is to be permitted.”
The Bench noted that the issue should be set-down for final hearing, “but in the meantime in view of the stand taken by the Centre and the provisions of the Central Act at present, we cannot have a situation where such camel slaughtering is permitted especially in the absence of any facility for it.”
