Mob justice by Gau Rakshaks

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court ruled recently that the State government, while being within its powers to impose the law against illegal slaughter houses, must make all provisions to ensure that livelihoods are not lost in its eagerness to impose the rule of law. It also cautioned, most sensibly, against acting insensitively towards people's food and cultural habits.

Justices Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Sanjai Harkauli were considering the writ petition of a petty retail meat shop owner at Nagar Palika, Lakhimpur, Kehri, seeking to renew his licence against the backdrop of the ban against illegal slaughter houses.

The order requires a careful perusal by the governments in the country as it raises fundamental questions on the implementation of laws at the ground level. The bench did not question the authority of the State to impose the ban, but only asked whether it had made provisions to allow people to eat and sell what they preferred to before implementing its ban.

Any law could look all green on paper, but on the ground it could lead to mayhem. The ban could affect two million people while choking its allied industries like leather, meat packaging and livestock too. The petitioner contended that he was earning his livelihood by selling goat meat catering to the food choice of the consumer public at large.

The petitioner was possessing a licence already for the said purpose but it appears that in view of the recent government orders, the Nagar Palika Parishad is not taking any action as there is a drive to shut down unlawful slaughterhouses that were being operated throughout the State.

The government's action, it may be recalled, has resulted in directly affecting the retail vendors who on account of non-availability and sudden closure of facilities of slaughtering are compelled to face the abrupt curtains drawn on their means of livelihood.

Thus, the question of setting up of a slaughterhouse, its running as well as the consequential impact thereof on the meat trade had spiralled to this level that petty retailers like the petitioner who are seeking renewal of their existing licences for retailing meat came running knocking on the doors of the HC.

While deliberating upon the laws in the matter, the learned judges also kept in mind the issue of non-availability of any such facilities for the slaughtering of animals. The Bench was worried that in the absence of any facilities having been provided by the local bodies or the Zila Panchayats, such trade or profession may prima facie face complete prohibition and affect the livelihood of those involved in this trade and profession thereby impinging their Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution of India.

It directed the State government to take up this matter in right earnest to resolve the said issues, that by and large, are interconnected with each other and directly impinge upon not only the trade and profession of those who are involved in it but also directly affect the consumers and the public at large. The competing rights of trade, profession, health safety as well as consumption and the obligation of the State to make facilities available are issues that are to be addressed simultaneously, it said.

"Health, culture, personal food habits, the socio-economic status of the society, the availability of foodstuff at affordable prices, the convenience of availability, the contents, quality and strength of foodstuff essential to life, and a balance of such competing rights under the secular umbrella of the Constitution are all issues that need a deliberation before any overt or covert action is taken. It should not appear to be abrupt for those who are at the receiving end and should not be legally unconstitutional.

Food habits in this State have flourished and are an essential part of life as an element of the secular culture that has come to exist and is common amongst all sections of the Society,” it observed. Compliance of law should not end in deprivation, the cause, whereof, may be attributable to the inaction of the State, the Bench warned.

Inmentioning the above indicators, the HC reasoned "we have put on record the above indicators so that the State while taking decisions does not lose sight of the dimensions and repercussions of the consequences that are likely to follow and affect the public at large. We may also point out specifically that so far as the rural areas are concerned, the activities of petty meat shop sellers in villages, hats and bazars are currently regulated by the provisions under the bye-laws framed by the Zila Panchayat keeping in view the provisions of Section 197 of the UP Kshettra Panchayats & Zila Panchayats Adhiniyam, 1961, which categorically provides and obliges a place to be specified for slaughtering within a radius of 2 miles.”

The rural areas and their local biweekly or daily markets have a different concept of functioning and catering to the local needs as against urban areas. The State has therefore to assess this aspect of local issues including remote and far-flung areas where availability of even basic facilities is still a mirage. Retail selling by local vendors in rural areas include those who themselves own and farm goatery, fishery, poultry and the like, they vend their own products. Such activities are promoted and permissible under the local laws and other allied laws.

Thus, the operation and the manner in which such facilities that are to be provided for compulsorily, if at all are totally absent in the rural areas, then the State government has to consider the continuance of the sale and retail of such petty vendors who earn their livelihood and cater to the needs of the local population by such exercise on day-to-day basis.

There is another dangerous aspect to the whole issue. The government may have kept in view the best interests of people and the law while issuing such an order. But, will it guarantee safety of a common man. A Phelu Khan has already been lynched by a group of Gau Rakshaks, the name given to lumpen elements, in Alwar on April 1.

It is a well-known fact that most of the Gau Rakshaks who operate under different names do so only to extort money. These highway gangs are notorious for waylaying people transporting cattle legally or ignorantly and even for dairy purpose and demanding money. Police records in Rajasthan indicate that in 2015 they had closed 73 cases registered under the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter, and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1965, finding those to be fake and the next year, 85 cases were closed.

What happens to the cows that the Gau Rakshaks seize in case? Check the backyards of their houses. If not the government-funded gau shalas!.
Most of the farmers in the rural areas are illiterate and presume that a receipt issued by the local authorities is enough to transport the cows as Phelu Khan did.

That too came in handy for the police to claim that he, along with his accomplices, was transporting the cattle illegally as the permit issued by the Jaipur Municipal authorities was not valid for transport out of the State. Hence cases were filed against the deceased and those accompanying him but not against the criminals. They escaped and the three of whom the local police showed as arrested did not figure in the statement of the deceased. The ban in UP could lead to a repeat of the same unless the government takes a serious look at it.

By w chandrakanth