Uttaranchal High Court: A Division Bench of Vipin Sanghi, C.J. and Ramesh Chandra Khulbe, J., allowed this writ petition imposing a stay, for a day, on Government order banning animal slaughter in Haridwar district.
This writ petition was moved by one Faisal Hussain as an intervener and pleaded to allow slaughter of animals in the legally permitted slaughterhouses which already existed in the Manglaur[1] Municipality area as the festival of Eid- al- Adha (‘Bakra – Eid’) is about to be celebrated on 10-07-2022.
The intervener contended that in the town of Manglaur, there are 87% Muslims. The effect of the Government order dated 03-03-2021 was that when the festival of Bakra Eid was celebrated, animals were sacrificed in the streets. Apart from this, an abattoir, a slaughtering house, has already been constructed under the Public-Private Partnership Model with all requisite permissions. It was also stated that these legally approved slaughterhouses were not operational because of the blanket ban imposed by Government order dated 03-03-2021 restraining slaughter of animals in entire Haridwar district.
The Court allowed animal slaughter on the upcoming Bakra Eid on 10-07-2022, because it is an essential religious practice in Islam.
The Court directed interveners to ensure that no sacrifice should be made within the compound of an abattoir, and not outside their residences.
The Court also directed the Municipal Board, Manglaur, District Haridwar, to make necessary arrangements at the abattoir on Bakra Eid on 10-07-2022.
[Iftakhar v. State of Uttarakhand, (PIL) No.44 of 2021, decided on 07-07-2022]
[1] Ed. Note: The Judgment of the Court mentions ‘Mangalore’ which falls in the State of Karnataka. However, we have corrected the same to ‘Manglaur’ which is a town Haridwar District in the State of Uttarakhand.
