Picture : ANI/X
The Supreme Court has stayed the Madras High Court’s direction to the Tamil Nadu government to ban cow slaughter in the State.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the interim order while hearing an appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the High Court’s May 27 directions.
According to PTI report, The State government had moved the top court against the Madras HC decision, arguing that the High Court had travelled beyond the scope of the public interest litigation, which sought directions to prevent the slaughter of cows in public places, by imposing a blanket prohibition on the slaughter of cows and calves across the State.
According to the appeal, the High Court’s direction effectively prohibited cow slaughter even in designated slaughterhouses, contrary to the statutory framework governing animal slaughter in Tamil Nadu.
The State further submitted that the Tamil Nadu Animal Preservation Act, 1958, the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act, 1998, the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Rules, 2023, and the applicable food safety regulations regulate animal slaughter and do not impose an absolute ban. The government had sought an interim stay on the operation of the High Court’s directions.
Earlier on July 1, the Tamil Nadu government had approached the Supreme Court challenging the May 27 Madras High Court’s order, which imposed a blanket ban on the slaughter of cows and calves in the state.
The State government had argued that the High Court had gone beyond the framework of the law by directing a blanket prohibition on cow slaughter
