E-Paper
Do you care for people like you do for cows: Gujarat high court
Taking care of cows is alright, the court observed posing this question to the district magistrate
The Gujarat high court has asked the district magistrate of Gir Somnath whether the administration takes equal care for the people of the area as it does for the cows, Livelaw reported. The bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay made this comment on Friday while he was hearing a case where the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA) has been invoked against a man for allegedly tying up cattle in such a manner that it could not drink water. The district magistrate passed a detention order which the accused challenged in the court.
Charged of cruelty were invoked against the man who was accused of not taking proper care of the cows.
While hearing the case, the judge remarked that protecting cows is alright and asked whether similar care is being taken for children and other people. According to reports, this is not the first time that the court asked these questions. In its June 28 order, the court asked a similar question but no reply came. Now the court has again asked the same questions and gave the district magistrate time till August 13 to reply.
"Opportunity is granted to the detaining authority, to file reply inter alia mentioning therein, whether the care which is claimed to have been taken on behalf of the State for gauvansh in the present case, similar care is being taken for citizens in the area under his jurisdiction. If any such reply is filed by the detaining authority before the next date of hearing, that shall also be taken into consideration by this Court while recording the final order. Until that exercise is done, the petitioner needs to be protected. Further execution of the impugned detention order therefore needs to be suspended," the order read.
