Action against those getting beef from outside Maharashtra? Don’t enter our kitchens, say Mumbaiites

The Maharashtra government wants the SC to reinstate a rule in the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act that allowed the police to prosecute those possessing meat from cows, bullocks and buffaloes slaughtered outside the state

Mumbaiites are irked with the Maharashtra government’s application in the Supreme Court seeking nod for police action against those getting beef from outside the state .

The Maharashtra government wants the SC to reinstate a rule in the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act that allowed the police to prosecute those possessing meat from cows, bullocks and buffaloes slaughtered outside the state. (File)

The Maharashtra government wants the SC to reinstate a rule in the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act that allowed the police to prosecute those possessing meat from cows, bullocks and buffaloes slaughtered outside the state. The Bombay high court had struck down the rule in May 2016.

“We are a law-abiding community. We will go by the rules, but this is certainly not the right way. We are sad that the government wants to enter our kitchens,” said Joachim Colaco, trustee of United Christian Community Centre (UCCC).

Read: Supreme Court to decide if you can keep and eat beef brought from outside Maharashtra

Javed Anand, convener of Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy, said the Bombay High Court judgment was reasonable. “The government wants to enforce Hindutva on other communities. There was no reason for the government to further challenge the decision,” said Anand.

On May 6, the Bombay High Court struck down sections 5(d) and 9(b) of the Maharashtra Animals Preservation (Amendment) Act, 1995, which criminalised and imposed punishment on those found possessing of beef of animals, slaughtered in or outside the state, on the grounds that it infringed upon a person’s “right to privacy”.

In its judgment, the court had upheld the ban on slaughter of bulls and bullocks imposed by the Maharashtra government, but decriminalised possession of beef in case the animals were slaughtered outside the state.