On Wednesday, the Kerala High Court rejected to put a hold on the ban imposed by the Centre on the sale of cattle for slaughter. The next hearing in this matter is due on June 28.
Notably, the High Court had earlier backed the Centre’s decision. However, the state government had opposed the order issued by the Central Environment Ministry in controlling the sale of cattle. The High Court acknowledged that there is no ban on cattle slaughter or consuming meat, but the bill only bans the large-scale sale of cattle through big markets.
The statement of the court came after considering the PIL filed by Youth Congress State Secretary TS Saji. The court had questioned if the notification has violated the fundamental rights of the citizen or the notification contains any clause that constrains the labour laws, following which the petitioner withdrew his petition.
Saying that the opposition doesn’t have right to issue such an order, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said that he will call for a meeting of all the Chief Ministers, asserting that the Union Government does not have the right to issue such an order.
“The Union Government does not have the right to issue this order. This is state’s matter and regulations have no legal validity,” Vijayan said during a press conference, adding that the legal sanctity of the new amendment lacks constitutional validity.
“There are a number of clauses which are violating the state’s basic rights. There are certain norms that the animal marketing committee has to look into. For example, the owner and buyer have to maintain a certificate which is not feasible and thereby we have decided to question the law in the court of law,” he added.
