Adding the privacy angle to the debate over beef ban, the Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on a petition filed by several organisations and activists who questioned the ban on consumption and import of beef on the ground that citizens have a fundamental right to eat food of their choice.
This question is significant since in the past, beef ban has been challenged by members of the butcher community who challenged the ban as violation of their right to practice their profession or trade. Following a law enacted by the Maharashtra Government making consumption or importing of beef a punishable offence, activists approached the apex court against a Bombay High Court, which upheld the ban on slaughter of cows, bulls and bullocks while permitting the meat to be imported into the State for consumption.
leading the argument for activists, senior advocate Indira Jaising submitted before a Bench of Justices AK Sikri and DY Chandrachud that the ban was against the right to live protected under Article 21 of the Constitution. Every citizen, according to her, living in any part of the country, had right to choose, which food to eat and beef supplies an “essential protein” for the body.
The petition submitted, “No person can be compelled to eat what he or she does not wish to eat as an alternate source of food since the right to eat food of one’s choice is part of the fundamental right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.” Jaising argued that any intervention by the Government in citizens’ private life by asking them to change their food habits also amounted to a violation of their right to live as food habits are formed over centuries and right to conserve food cultures is also contained within the ambit of Article 21.
Already, the court had entertained petitions by butchers association and other individuals from the State on the issue. Besides, a separate petition filed by the Akhil Bhartiya Krishi Goseva Sangh has challenged that part of the Bombay HC judgment allowing importing beef from other States into Maharashtra for consumption or sale.
The Bench directed the Centre and the Maharashtra Government to respond on the petition within six weeks and decided to club hearing of all petitions related to the issue.