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," while dismissing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking to provide proper facilities for slaughtering in view of coming Bakrid.
the Bench, comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan, refused to entertain a repeated request made by petitioner J. Abdul Raheem, founder of Indian National League (INL), a political party, to permit camel slaughtering temporarily in view of Bakrid that falls on Tuesday.
Instead, the court directed the government to issue a circular to all police stations in the State to ensure that the interim order, dated August 18, denying permission for camel slaughtering in the absence of proper facilities, is not violated.
However, the Bench made it clear that the court has not completely banned camel slaughtering, but has temporarily denied permission since there is no proper facilities in the State. "The interim order was passed on the basis of the Central government's stand that slaughtering of camels cannot be permitted without proper facilities in accordance with the Central Acts on animal welfare," it said.
When 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," the Bench said, "We have no issue in passing over the matter. But the petitioner cannot seek to modify an interim order passed in a different petition, through a new plea."
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 in contrary, 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 to be permitted."
The Bench also noted that the issue should be set-down for final hearing, ''but in the mean time in view of the stand taken by the Central government 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.''
