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Last Updated: Sep 25th, 2006 - 11:36:04 |
Separate buffalo slaughter methods, Supreme Court urged
New Delhi - The Supreme Court was Tuesday urged to order that separate areas be designated for slaughtering buffalos by different methods at a new abattoir being built here - earning the court’s wrath.
The Buffalo Traders Welfare Association wanted separate areas in the Ghazipur slaughterhouse in east Delhi for slaughtering the animals through the ‘halal’ and ‘jhatka’ methods. In the first, the animal dies a slow death, while in the second, it is killed in a single stroke.
Annoyed at such a plea being made, a bench comprising judges S.B. Sinha, G.P. Mathur and A.K. Mathur told the plaintiff’s counsel it would not entertain the application, which also sought a direction to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to provide a separate entry and exit for animals and people involved in different methods of slaughtering at the modernised facility.
Observing it would not entertain such an application after 60 years of Independence, the bench asked counsel: ‘What difference does it make whether you slaughter an animal by this method or by that method?’
The application sought separate entry and exit points on the ground that Muslims were opposed to the ‘jhatka’ method as Islam only permitted the ‘halal’ method. It said that on inspecting the new abattoir, it was observed that both methods of slaughtering existed side-by-side contrary to the practice of keeping them separate.
‘Also, there is only one entry point and one exit point for animals being taken in for slaughter by ‘halal’ and ‘jhatka’ methods as well as for taking away the meat. This is bound to create problems,’ the association maintained.
Noting that it had been catering to Delhi’s meat-eating population for about 100 years and that more than 40,000 people were connected with the trade directly and indirectly, the association said it had filed the application to avoid any inconvenience once the abattoir became operational.
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