Plea dismissed for law prohibiting cow slaughter, beef sale

The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking a law to prohibit cow slaughter and sale of beef and its products across the national capital region (NCR).

A division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath dismissed the plea saying the petition is "misconceived" and the Delhi government has informed that it already has an act called Delhi Agriculture Cattle Preservation Act, 1994, to prevent such acts.

The public interest litigation was filed by self-proclaimed monk Swami Satyananda Chakradhari.

"Delhi government already has Delhi Agriculture Cattle Preservation Act. There is prohibition of slaughter of agricultural cattles. It covers everything. There are already shelters. Five such shelters are there with capacity of 23,000 cows and they have 10,000 cows there. There are number of private cow shelters also," the Delhi government's advocate said asking the court to dismiss the plea.

Chakradhari's plea had also sought directions to the Delhi government to enact a law similar to the 1932 Ranbir Penal Code, applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, which states that "slaughter of cows and alike animals" was punishable with up to 10 years in prison as well as financial penalty. 

"Direct the respondents (Delhi government, lt. Governor and Delhi Police) to consider enacting a law prohibiting slaughter of cows, their import/export and sale of beef and its products across Delhi and NCR," said the plea.

"The state government should set up a Gokul Gram on the government-proposed land and to be used to rehabilitate old cows, bulls and bullocks. The Gokul Gram should be set up with central government aid," it added.

The Maharashtra government recently banned the possession and sale of beef and violators in the state can be punished by up to five years in prison, the plea added.