Centre's notification does not ban cattle slaughter: Kerala HC

Disposing of a PIL filed against the Centre's move to ban the sale and purchase of animals for slaughter at cattle markets, the Kerala High Court on Wednesday observed that the new regulation doesn't impose a complete ban on cattle slaughter. A division bench of the high court, hearing a PIL filed by the Youth Congress secretary, said there was no breach of citizen's rights.

"The PIL does not stand since the Centre's regulation only bans the sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets. It has not banned cattle slaughter at all. Can't the sale and slaughtering be done at home or other places? There is no breach of citizens' rights here. Seems like people are raising objections without even reading the regulation," the bench reportedly remarked.

The high court also reportedly expressed surprise atthe Madras High Court's stay order on the Centre's recent notification. "If people had read the notification properly, there would not have been protests", the court reportedly said.

The Rajasthan high court on Wednesday recommended the Centre to declare cow as the national animal of India.

The court further suggested that anyone guilty of cow slaughter should be sentenced to life, a steep escalation from the present three years' imprisonment.

Judge Mahesh Chandra Sharma made the recommendations while hearing the Hingonia Gaushala matter, a government-run cowshed in Jaipur where over a hundred cows had perished over the span of a few weeks last year. The petition comes at a time when a number of states in the country are protesting the government's decision to impose a ban on the slaughter of cattle, primarily cows, for commercial purposes.