At a time when many States are protesting the Centre's decision to ban the slaughter of all cattle — including cows and buffaloes — a Rajasthan High Court judge’s observation that the Centre must name the cow as India's national animal, is bound to raise several questions, particularly the tendency of some judges to get drawn into political controversies. The judge has also recommended enhancement of punishment for cow slaughter from the present seven years to life imprisonment. Such recommendations might likely embolden vigilante groups who, in the name of cow protection, have carried out violent attacks on minorities suspected of cow slaughtering.
Declaring a new national animal is the executive's prerogative, not the judiciary’s. The obscurantist observations in the judgement could provide an opportunity to critics for questioning the quality of judges and the appointment system. That said, on the last day of his term, Justice Mahesh Chand Sharma made a stunning proclamation that the peacock should be declared the national bird because it did not need to mate with a peahen to procreate — the peahen simply drinks the tears of the peacock to get pregnant. No sooner had the learned judge made this obnoxious observation, the birds on social media started tweeting away with gay abandon.