Calcutta High Court Refuses To Pass Urgent Orders On ‘Last-Minute’ Plea Against Alleged Illegal Cow Slaughter On Bakrid

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to pass urgent orders in a plea seeking to stop alleged illegal slaughter of cows on the occasion of Bakri-Eid due to be held in West Bengal tomorrow, on the 29^th June.

Chief Justice Sivagnanam asked for the plea to be listed, but rebuked the practise of last-minute mentioning’s, and observed, “You know this festival has been scheduled for weeks, months, in advance. Why wait till now? This last-minute business will not work sir. You should have come 15-30 days in advance. You can be rest assured that we cannot pass orders by 2pm. With that caveat we will hear.”

An advocate had approached a division-bench of Chief Justice Sivagnanam and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta with a plea for urgent listing and hearing on the grounds that non-intervention of the Court would lead to “lakhs of cows being slaughtered on the occasion of Bakri-Eid.”

Upon hearing the contentions, Chief Justice Sivagnanam questioned the advocate about what the directions were pertaining to the festival in the previous year. According to the petitioner, over the previous years, the Supreme Court as well as various High Courts had passed a number of directions asking the State administration and police to curb instances of cow slaughter and regulate the same.

Chief Justice Sivagnanam orally remarked, “then you should have dragged these people to court in contempt, what is the point in filing this petition afresh, contempt could have been filed [for enforcement of Courts orders] instead.”

The petitioners expressed anguish that they were under the impression that the State and police would enforce the orders of the Courts, but aggrieved by the fact that they did not, the petitioners had approached the Bench on this occasion.

The Bench orally remarked that although the petitioners were aware about Eid being scheduled on the 29^th of June for months in advance, they only chose to approach the court at the last moment, and that such a practise could not be encouraged.

Coram: Chief Justice Sivagnanam and Justice Ajay Kumar Gupta