Lucknow: Expressing concern over the plight of slaughterhouse and retail meat shop owners vis-a-vis the State government’s crackdown, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court on Monday issued directives to the UP government to apprise it of the findings of the high-powered committee constituted under the chairmanship of the chief secretary to deliberate on the issue of granting and renewal of licences of both the slaughterhouses and the retail meat shops.
The court passed the order as the committee is scheduled to meet on April 10. The court asked the State government to furnish information in this regard by filing an affidavit. The court also set the matter for next hearing on April 13, 2017.
A bench of Justices AP Sahi and Sanjai Harkauli expressed concern over the government's action on meat shops, which they said were forcibly being closed without considering the renewal of licence to meet vendors. Hearing the petitions moved against inaction of State agencies, which did not renew the expired licences of the meat shops and slaughterhouses during the last two years.
Referring to an earlier Supreme Court order in Laxmi Narayan Modi case, the HC bench was of the view that there could neither be a complete ban on consumption of meat nor slaughterhouses could be shut. The bench, however, agreed that the slaughtering and selling of meat could be regularised in the state to the conformance of guidelines.
The State government, on the other hand, submitted in the court that it intended neither to ban consumption of meat nor would it close down all slaughterhouses and meat shops. It said that it wanted to regulate the functioning of both. The State government also told the court that it wanted ban illegal slaughterhouses and meat shops which was legal.
Noting the legal provisions in detail in its order on Monday, the bench directed the Bahraich Nagar Palika to consider the renewal of licence of petitioner Sayed Ahmad. The bench also directed the Bahraich DM to consider setting up slaughterhouses at every two miles (over 3 km) in rural areas as per the legal provisions.