Animal Sacrifice During Bakrid Permissible Subject To Statutory Prohibitions: Gauhati High Court

The Gauhati High Court has made it clear that slaughter of animals on the occasion of Bakrid is permissible, subject to the prohibitions contained in various statutes including the Prevention of Cruelty Animal Act, 1960, the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021.

A bench comprising Justices Manash Ranjan Pathak and Manish Choudhury upheld two communications dated June 7 and July 4 issued by the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Assam government respectively, specifying that camels cannot be slaughtered for food at all and wherever the Cow Slaughter Prohibition Act is in force, then slaughtering of cows should not be allowed at all.

The development comes in a PIL filed by one Hifzur Rahman Choudhury, challenging the two communications on the ground that those are in violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the Assam Cattle Prevention Act, 2021.

Choudhury also contended that AWBI has no such power, jurisdiction and authority to issue any such communications to the State Government regarding stopping of sacrifice of animals on the occasion of Bakrid or any other religious festivals of the country.

The Court noted that the impugned communications were for prevention of illegal killing and sacrifices of cows/calves, camels and other animals and taking action against the offenders for violation of Transport of Animals Rules on the occasion of Bakrid.

It referred to Supreme Court's judgment in State of West Bengal and Others Vs Ashutosh Lahiri and Others, (1995) 1 SCC 189, where it was held that there is no fundamental right of a Muslim to insist on slaughter of healthy cow on BakrI'd day and that the same is not shown to be an essential religious practice.

The communication directed all the authorities concerned to take all precautionary measures to strictly implement animal welfare laws to stop illegal killing of animals and to take stringent action against the offenders violating PCA Act, 1960, Transport of Animal Rules, 1978, Transport of Animals (Amendment) Rules, 2001, Slaughter House Rules, 2001, municipal laws and Food Safety & Standards Authority of India directions for slaughtering of animals during Bakrid festival. It further directed the authorities to intimate action taken report in that regard to said AWBI.