HC directs Mumbai police to deoute cops at Mahim society to curb slaughtering

The Bombay high court has directed Mumbai police to depute two police constables at a society in Mahim till August 2 to curb any act of slaughtering during the Bakri

The Bombay high court has directed Mumbai police to depute two police constables at a society in Mahim till August 2 to curb any act of slaughtering during the Bakri Eid festival that will be observed on August 1 and 2. The petitioner society approached the court seeking a restraint on members from slaughtering animals on the premise in light of previous high court orders that ban slaughtering of animals outside the abattoir at Deonar or any other place designated by the BMC during the festival. After the BMC informed the court that it had not issued any permission to the members, the court directed the police to depute constables.

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A division bench of justice R D Dhanuka and justice V G Bisht while hearing a petition filed by Lingam Battula and other members of Unnati Cooperative Housing Society at Mahim (W) was informed by advocates Siddh Vidya and Ashish Verma that despite high court orders restricting slaughtering of animals in private properties, the society had an apprehension that some members may carry out slaughtering on the occasion of Bakri Eid.

Vidya informed the court that as the festival was observed over a period of three days the court should direct the authorities to restrict slaughtering of animals in the society on all three days. The advocates also sought similar orders for the entire city.

On its part senior counsel, Anil Sakhare for the BMC informed the court that the civic body which is responsible for issuing licenses for the slaughtering of animals on festive occasions had not issued any license to any of the society members.

Following an order by a previous bench of the HC in 2017, the BMC had made it mandatory for devotees to secure a license before undertaking to slaughter of sacrificial animals. The order was further beefed up by another bench in 2019 wherein slaughtering in homes and private properties were restricted due to health and hygiene issues.

The bench had directed that slaughtering of sacrificial animals could take place only in the Deonar abattoir but after it was informed that such an arrangement would lead to chaos, it had directed the BMC to identify areas in each ward where slaughtering could take place under the supervision of civic officials.

After hearing the submissions, the court directed the Mumbai police to depute two constables at the society during the duration of the festival to ensure that the members do not violate court orders.

The bench, however, refused to pass orders on the prayer seeking a blanket order for the entire city and directed the petitioners to resort to appropriate proceedings in the form of public interest litigation for the same and disposed of the petition.