For years, the Supreme Court has struggled for consistency in its judicial pronouncements regarding cattle, leaving it ultimately to the Centre and States to devise an appropriate policy.
While Supreme Court banned the bull-running sport jallikattu as cruel, it refused to intervene with States to frame a uniform policy on cattle slaughter. Neither did the court deem it fit to examine a plea to ban animal sacrifices for religious purposes.
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Traditions
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“The balance and harmony of all faiths, this court is bound to it. Your petition makes generalised statements on a very, very sensitive matter.. We have to close our eyes to centuries and centuries old traditions,” Chief Justice of India (as he was then) H.L. Dattu orally observed in court to a petition filed by a journalist, Varaaki, in September 2015.
The petition had contended that “faith, religion, customs and practices should not take precedence over lawful rights, human or animal. This being true for all religious communities, whether it be Durga pooja, the slaughter of lambs for Easter, turkeys for Thanksgiving or goats for Bakri-Eid.”
Again, in 2017, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar declined a plea by Delhi resident Vineet Sahai to direct the States to frame a national policy as contradicting laws ensured a favourable clime for illegal inter-State transportation of cattle.
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Extending rules
In April 2017, the apex court had asked the Centre to extend to India-Bangladesh border areas its rules framed to counter the smuggling of cattle to territories in Nepal.
Legal precedents also show that the court had differed on the question whether beef was a “poor man’s diet”.