The Uttarakhand High Court on July 20, upheld a decision of the Uttarkashi Zila panchayat, prohibiting the sale of meat within 500-meters along the banks of river Ganga, considered sacred by the Hindus. The court was hearing a petition filed by one Navid Qureshi, challenging a notice issued to him by the Uttarkashi Zila Panchayat in 2016, ordering him to shift his meat shop situated 105 meters away from the bank of the river Ganga.
While dismissing the petition, the single judge bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra observed that anyone who operates a meat shop in District Uttarkashi for the purpose of slaughtering and selling animals must obtain a no objection certificate from the concerned authority by Zila Panchayat by-laws, as well as a license from the designated authority.
The court added that keeping in mind the special status of Uttarakhand and the river Ganga that emerges from District Uttarkashi, as well as the sanctity attached to the river Ganga by the majority of Uttarakhand’s population the decision taken by the Zila Panchayat by making by-laws to the effect that no shop for butchering animals and selling meat within 500 metres of the bank of the river Ganga appears to be in line with the scheme of the Constitution of India as envisaged in Part IX.
Furthermore, the Court held that the District Magistrate of Uttarkashi made no mistake in refusing to provide Qureshi with a no-objection certificate to operate a meat store within 500 metres of the Ganga’s bank.
According to the petitioner Navid Qureshi, the Zila Panchayat Uttarkashi had on February 27, 2016, issued a notice to him asking him to relocate his meat business within 7 days since it was 105 metres away from the bank of the Ganga which was in violation of the laws.
Qureshi stated in his plea that he had secured a licence to run his meat store from the appropriate authorities under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 and that the Zila panchayat could not shut it down.
The Counsel for Qureshi stated that the District Magistrate of Uttarkashi declined his application for a no objection certificate only because his business is located within 500 metres of the Ganga’s bank.
The Uttarakhand High Court, however, observed that the Zila Panchayat and local bodies had the power to frame such rules and by-laws. Accordingly, it dismissed Qureshi’s petition.
Uttarakhand HC stays state govt order to declare Haridwar as a “slaughter-free area”
Notably, last month, the Uttarakhand High Court stayed the state government notification declaring the entire district of Haridwar, regarded as a holy place for Hindus, as a “slaughter-free area” and allowed the slaughter of animals for Eid al-Adha on July 10 at a slaughterhouse in the Manglaur municipality in the district.
On March 3, 2021, the Uttarakhand state government had designated Haridwar district’s urban local bodies including two municipal corporations, two municipalities, and five Nagar Panchayats ‘slaughterhouse-free regions’, and terminated permits to operate slaughterhouses. The notification from the urban development department came ahead of the Kumbh Mela. Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs from the area wrote to then-chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, urging that slaughterhouses be prohibited in a ‘religious city like Haridwar’.
Terming the state government’s decision to ban all slaughterhouses in the Haridwar district ‘arbitrary and unconstitutional’, a group of locals has filed a petition in the Uttarakhand high court.
