Supreme Court refuses urgent hearing of PIL seeking complete ban on cow slaughter

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to grant urgent hearing of a PIL seeking effective implementation of the law imposing a complete ban on cow slaughter ahead of Bakrid.

"You remembered this a day before. No urgency. Thanks," said a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

"Day after tomorrow is Bakrid. This is a plea to seek implementation of anti-cow slaughter law. If this can be listed tomorrow," Sinha said.

The plea, filed by Satish Kumar Aggarwal, former vice-president of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, seeks directions to enforce anti-slaughter laws to protect the cow and its progeny from slaughter. It also wants a direction to state governments to notify guidelines for regulating slaughterhouses in each and every state in accordance with law.

Muslim organizations said this move will curb the political exploitation of the issue of cow slaughter, as well as put an end to incidents of mob lynching and other atrocities committed in its name.

While many are advocating for the initiatives to build a consensus within the community on this issue, some even intend to meet the prime minister and the chief minister in this regard.

Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi, National President of the All India Muslim Jamaat, wholeheartedly supported Madani's demand to designate the cow as the 'National Animal'.

Speaking to PTI, he said that his objective would be to forge a consensus among various Muslim organisations on this matter. To this end, a meeting of key representatives from prominent Muslim organisations will soon be convened in Delhi, where a joint memorandum of demands will be drafted and subsequently submitted to the country's top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He asserted that the government should fulfil this demand immediately, as doing so would not only bring uniformity to the government's policies regarding cow slaughter across the entire nation but would also help eradicate incidents of mob lynching and other acts of oppression perpetrated in the name of cow slaughter.

Siraj Qureshi, President of the All India Qureshi Jamaat -- a prominent organisation of the Qureshi community involved in the meat trade -- said that the issue of cow sacrifice has once again become a heated topic in political circles ahead of Eid-ul-Azha (Bakrid), and the unfolding events in West Bengal serve as the latest example of this trend.

Openly supporting the demand to declare the cow the national animal, he affirmed that, if necessary, his organisation would seek a meeting with the prime minister in this regard.

"Our sacrifice should be such that it doesn't cause any inconvenience to anyone else. The government has issued instructions to all collectors, officials, and the NMC commissioner. Slaughterhouse has been allocated to perform the sacrifice. We must cooperate with the administration and the police," Khan told ANI.

On Saturday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government has invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) for the first time against offences related to cow smuggling, illegal cattle transportation and illegal slaughterhouses, asserting that the move would withstand legal scrutiny.