Court says cattle national wealth, grants lifer to 7
12 Oct 2014 10:06 PM GMT
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said the government should step in and draft a national policy to protect and take care of the rescued cattle which are being rampantly released on ‘superdari’ (undertaking) to those who are being booked for the violation of special laws relating to protection of animals.
‘This they do by taking advantage of lacuna in existing law which is totally silent on how these rescued animals are required to be dealt with. Under no circumstances can these animals/cattle be handed over to the same persons from whose clutches they have been rescued.
‘This lacuna in law, rather mischief in law needs an urgent attention of the law framers so that it is plugged at the earliest. Cattle wealth of the country has to be protected at any cost not only because it is connected to important issues of national health but also because its an issue which is closely knitted to religious beliefs and sentiments of a class of society which have to be respected,’ the court said.
The court said that in order to fulfil the constitutional obligations, ‘it is desirable for the government of India to step in and seriously draft out a National Policy where the animals/cattle so rescued, particularly the milch cattle which are the national wealth of our country, are protected, preserved and taken care of’.
The court’s 538-page judgement came in a case relating to an encounter between a gang of cattle lifters from Mewat, on the outskirts of the national capital, and the Delhi police in the Outer Delhi district on the intervening night of January 18-19, 2013, when the accused were trying to flee by taking away the animals for the purpose of slaughtering.
It awarded the jail term to Uttar Pradesh residents Anwar, Ankur Kumar, Sanwar, Khalid, Tasleem, Hasrat and Asif for the offences of attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, obstructing public servant in discharging duty, assaulting and voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty under the IPC.
‘This they do by taking advantage of lacuna in existing law which is totally silent on how these rescued animals are required to be dealt with. Under no circumstances can these animals/cattle be handed over to the same persons from whose clutches they have been rescued.
‘This lacuna in law, rather mischief in law needs an urgent attention of the law framers so that it is plugged at the earliest. Cattle wealth of the country has to be protected at any cost not only because it is connected to important issues of national health but also because its an issue which is closely knitted to religious beliefs and sentiments of a class of society which have to be respected,’ the court said.
The court said that in order to fulfil the constitutional obligations, ‘it is desirable for the government of India to step in and seriously draft out a National Policy where the animals/cattle so rescued, particularly the milch cattle which are the national wealth of our country, are protected, preserved and taken care of’.
The court’s 538-page judgement came in a case relating to an encounter between a gang of cattle lifters from Mewat, on the outskirts of the national capital, and the Delhi police in the Outer Delhi district on the intervening night of January 18-19, 2013, when the accused were trying to flee by taking away the animals for the purpose of slaughtering.
It awarded the jail term to Uttar Pradesh residents Anwar, Ankur Kumar, Sanwar, Khalid, Tasleem, Hasrat and Asif for the offences of attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, obstructing public servant in discharging duty, assaulting and voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty under the IPC.
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