India's Supreme Court has issued an interim stay on the Madras High Court's order banning cow slaughter in Tamil Nadu on Eid-ul-Adha or any other day. Giving the ruling on Monday, 13 July, the Supreme Court made clear that the High Court order needed legal "correction" or review.

The order came on a special leave appeal against the High Court verdict filed by Tamil Nadu's ruling TVK government, led by Thalapathy Vijay. The ruling has brought major relief to the state's minority Muslim community in protecting their religious freedom.

On 27 May, a division bench of the Madras High Court had ordered a complete ban on cow slaughter across Tamil Nadu by enforcing an old government order from August 1976. Challenging that order in the top court, the Vijay government argued that when the country's existing laws and statutory provisions expressly allow a specific category of cattle to be slaughtered at designated places under set rules, a judicial direction or ban contrary to those statutes cannot stand.

The division bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan had noted that the 1976 order was issued in the interest of increasing milk production and developing the rural economy. Justice Swaminathan, who wrote the judgment, also stressed that under Article 48 of the Indian Constitution the state government is duty-bound to take effective steps to prohibit the slaughter of cows, calves and other milch and draught cattle. Citing the Constituent Assembly debates, he noted that the cow is a deeply revered animal and has been intertwined with Hindu civilisation since the time of Lord Krishna.

Traditionally, the Muslim community sacrifices animals to please Allah during Eid-ul-Adha at various religious gatherings and on private premises, following local rules. Several Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu also practise animal sacrifice under religious rites during their annual festivals.

Muslim and other religious leaders welcomed the Supreme Court's decision, arguing that confining qurbani and similar religious sacrifices to licensed, government slaughterhouses is entirely impractical and impossible, because those slaughterhouses lack the capacity and infrastructure to cope with the huge demand for animals on festival days.

The Tamil Nadu government told the court that the Tamil Nadu Animal Preservation Act and other existing slaughterhouse rules already strictly regulate where and under what conditions animals may be slaughtered, but that these laws in no way impose a blanket or total ban on animal slaughter in the state.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.