STATE OF WEST BENGAL ETC. ETC. v. ASHUTOSH LAHIRI AND ORS.

NOVEMBER 16, 1994

B West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950-Section 12- Exemption of slaughter of healthy cows on Bakri-ldd day-Validity challenged-Whether such slaughter of cows by members of Muslim community on Bakri Idd was an essential requirement of Muslim religion- C Held, No, as such an exemption was outside the scope ofsection 12.

Respondents filed a tVrit petition challenging the validity of exemption of slaughter of scheduled animal, namely, cows, from the operation of the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act, 1950 on Bakri-Idd day. The writ petitioners contended that the State of West D Bengal had wrongly invoked section 12 of the Act when it exempted from the operation of the Act, the slaughter of healthy cows on the ground that such exemption was required to be given for the religious purpose of Muslim community. The Division Bench of the High Court held that such slaughter of cows by members of Muslim community on Bakri Idd was not an essential requirement of Muslim religion and E therefore, such exemption was ousted the scope of section 12 of the Act. A mandamus was issued to State calling upon them to forbear from giving any such exemption on the occassion of Bakri ldd day thereinafter.

These appeals by special leave are filed against the judgment of the F High Court. It was contended by the State that the view of the High Court was erroneous and it did not correctly interpret section 12 of the Act. According to the appellants such exemption can be granted for fulfilling any religious purpose and such purpose · may not be an obligatory purpose. That even if it is open to a Muslim to offer sacrifice G of a goat or a camel or a cow and when such a sacrifice should be of a healthy animal it was perfectly open to the State to grant exemption from the operation of the Act so far as the slaughtering of healthy cow on Bakri Idd day was concerned. So far as section 12 of the Act is concerned it does not talk of an essential religious purpose but talks of any religiou; purpose which may include even an optional purpose. H 515

516 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1994) SUPP. 5 S.<;.R

A The respondent in these appeals contended that the Act is meant for controlling the slaughter of animals including the cows and buffalloes and this is with the object of increasing the supply of milk and avoiding the wastage of animal power necessary for improvement of agriculture. Under. the Act so far as healthy animals like cows are concerned there is a complete ban on slaughtering them. Section 12 B seeks to lift the ban in connection with such animals only on the fulfilment of the condition precedent, namely, such lifting of ban being necessary for any· religious, medicinal or research purpose. As this is an exception to the general protection against slaughtering of healthy animals, such exemption.or exception should be strictly construed and cannot be lightly granted or lightly resorted to for any optional C religious purpose which may not be absolutely necessary. It was submitted that it is no~ essential for Muslims to earn religious merit by insisting on sacrificing only healthy cows on Bakri ldd. Consequently, the State will not have any jurisdiction or power to invoke section 12 for fulfilling such optional religious practice of Muslim community.

D Dismissing the Appeal, this Court

1.2. Section 12 seeks to lift the ban in connection with slaughter of such animals on certain conditions. For lifting the bap it should be shown that it is essential or necessary for a Muslim to sacrifice a healthy cow on Bakri ldd day and if such is the requirement of religious purpose then it may enable the State in its wisdom to lift the ban. If it is not necessary or essential to permit slaughter of a healthy cow for any religious purpose it would be equally not open to the state to invoke its exemption power u/s 12 for such a religious purpose. (521-G-H, 523-D)

1.3. Slaughtering__of healthy cows on Bakri ldd is not essential or r.equired for religious purpose of Muslims; in other words i,t is not a part of religious requirement for a Muslim that a cow must be necessarily saerit'iced for earning religious merit on Bakri-ldd. (523-D) ·

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MH Quareshi and Ors. v. State of Bihar, A.I.R. (1958) SC 731, A (Constitution Bench), Followed.

Unionofindiav. Wood Papers Ltd, (1991) 1JTSC151 andNovopal India Ltd v. C.C.E. and Customs, Hyderabad, (1994) 6 JT SC 80, relied on. B Tilkayat Shri Govindlaiji Maha;·aj v. State of Rajasthan and Ors., (1964) 1 SCR 561; Durgah Committee, Ajmer and Anr. v. Syed Hussain Ali and Ors., (1962) 1 SCR 383 and Hazrat Kair Mohd Shah v. Commissioner ofIncome Tax, (1967) 63 ITR 490 (SC), distinguished.

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 6790of1983 C Etc. Etc.

From the Judgment and Order dated 20.8.82 of the Calcutta High Court in C.R. No. 709-W of 1971.

Jaideep Gupta, G.S. Chatterjee and Ms. Aruna Banerjee for the D Appellants.

V.M. Tarkunde and Harish N. Salve, Isa, Kalimuddin Ali and Shakil Ahmed Syed for the Applicants.

D.V. Sehgal, A.M. Singhvi, Bimal Roy Jad, A.S. Pundir, Rajinder E Singhvi, B.S. Banthia, R.D. Upadhyay and Arun Bansal for the Respondents.

Tl)e Judgment of the Court was delivered by

MAJMUDAR, J. All these appeals by special leave arise out of the judgment of the Division Bench of Calcutta High Court in Civil Rule No. F 709 (W) of 1971 decided on 20th August, 1982. The appellants in these appeals are the State of West Bengal and the other contesting respondents who were before the High Court. 27 respondents herein had filed the writ petition before the Calcutta High Court, challenging the validity of exemption of slaughter of scheduled animal, namely, cows, from the operation of the West Bengal Animal Slaughter (Control) Act, 1950 G (hereinafter referred to as the' Act') Bakri-Idd day. The writ petitioners had obtained leave under Order 1 Rule 8 of the Code of Civil Procedure and joined respondents 7 to 21 representing the Muslim community. The writ petitioners contended before the High Court that the State of West Bengal respondent No. l before the High Court had wrongly invoked section 12 of H

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A the Act when it exempted from the operation of the Act, the slaughter of healthy cows on the occasion of Bakri Idd on the ground that such exemption was required to be given for the religious purpose of Muslim community. The Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court after hearing the contesting parties took the view that such slaughter of cows by members of Muslim community on Bakri ldd day was not a requirement of Muslim B religion and, therefore, such exemption was outside the scope of section 12 of the Act. Consequently, the impugned order was dehors the statute. In that view the Division Bench allowed the petition and issued a mandamus to the appellants, State of West Bengal respondent No. I and its delegate officers respondent Nos. 2 to 16 in the writ petition calling upon them to forbear from giving any exemption under section 12 of the Act in respect of c slaughter of cows on the occasion of Bakri Idd day thereinafter. The writ petitioner's oral application for leave under Article 133 of the Constitution was refused as according to the Division Bench it had followed the Constitution Bench decision of this Court in MH Quareshi r;znd Ors., v. State ofBihar, A.LR (1958) SC 731, in coming to the said conclusion.

D As noted earlier the State of West Bengal as well as other contesting respondents of Muslim community have preferred these appeals by way of special leave to appeal from the aforesaid judgment of the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court.

As all these appeals involve common questions of facts and law, learned counsel for contesting parties addressed common arguments in all these appeals. Consequently, we are disposing of these appeals by this common judgment.

Learned counsel for the appellants in these appeals vehemently contended that the view of the High Court is erroneous and does not correctly interpret section 12 of the Act. It must be held that such exemption can be granted for fulfilling any religious purpose and such purpose may not be an obligatory purpose. That even if it is open to a Muslim to offer sacrifice of a goat or a camel or a cow and w~en such a sacrifice should be of a healthy animal then it was perfectly open to the G State to grant exemption from the operation of the Act so far as slaughtering of healthy cow on Bakri Idd day was concerned. It was also · coi1tended that the High Court had misread the judgment in Quareshi 's case as this case had interpreted Article 25 of the Constitution of India and in that light it was held that slaughter of cows could not be considered to be a p~rt of essential religious requirement. so" far as section 12 of the Act is' H concerned it does not talk of an essential religious purpose but talks of any

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religious purpose which may include even an optional purpose. Mr. A Tarkunde, learned senior counsel, appearing for one of the appellants vehemently contended that for operation of section 12 it is not necessary that the religious purpose must be a mandatory purpose but would cover even an optional purpose as contemplated by the Muslim religion, like slaughter of healthy cow on Bakri Idd. Hence such a purpose would be covered by the sweep of section 12 of the Act. B On the other hand learned counsel for the original writ petitioners, respondents in these appeals, contended that the Act is meant for controlling the slaughter of animals including the cows and buffaloes and this is with the object of increasing the supply of milk and avoiding the wastage of animal power ~ecessary for improvement of agriculture. Under C section 4 of the Act only animals fit for slaughtering can be slaughtered. For that a certificate is required to be issued by the concerned authorities. But so far as healthy animals like cows are concerned there is a complete ban on slaughtering them. Section 12 seeks to lift the ban in connection with such animals only on the fulfilment of the condition precedent, namely, such lifting of the ban being necessary for any religious, medicinal or research purpose. As this is an exception to the general protection against slaughtering of healthy animals as envisaged by the Act, such exemption or exception should be strictly construed and cannot be liglltly granted or lightly resorted to for any optional religious purpose which may not be absolutely necessary. In this connection it was submitted by learned counsel for the respondents that as per the appellants, in order to earn religious merits a Muslim can offer sacrifice of a goat or alternatively of a healthy cow if 7 Muslims together decided to do so and spend for it or even a camel can be sacrificed by them on Bakri Idd. Therefore, it is not essential for Muslims to earn religious merit by insisting on sacrificing only healthy cows on Bakri Idd. Consequently, the State will not have any jurisdiction or power to invoke section 12 for fulfilling such optional religious practice of Muslim community. It was further contended that the Constitution Bench judgment in Quareshi 's case (supra) had clearly ruled that slaughter of cow on Bakri Idd day cannot be considered to be a part of essential religous practice and that is the reason why protection of Article 25 is not available for enabling slaughtering of cows on Bakri ldd day. If that is so, on that very basis the State's action under section 12 of the Act has to be judged otherwise what is held to be non-essential religious requireme~t by the Constitution Bench of this Court, would be treated as essential religious requirement for the purpose of section 12 of the Act. That would run counter to the very ratio of the decision of the Constitution Bench of this Court. Therefore, according to the learned counsel for the respondent, writ H

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A petitioners, the Division Bench of the High Court was perfectly in following the decision of the Constitution Bench of this Court in Quareshi's case (supra).

We have given our anxious consideration to the rival contentions. In our view the decision rendered by the Division Bench of Calcutta High B Court under appeal is unexceptionable and calls for no interference. We must keep in view the scheme of the Act for deciding the question in controversy.

As the preamble of the Act shows it was enacted to control the slaughter of certain animals as it was expedient to do so with a view to c increase the supply of milk and to avoid the wastage of animal power necessary for improvement of agriculture. Section 2. lays down that the Act applies to animals specified in the schedule. The schedule to the Act covers bulls, bullocks, cows, calves, male and female buffaloes, buffalo calves and castrated buffaloes. Section 4 of the Act deals with prohibition of slaughtering of animals without certificate from authorities concerned. D Section 4 ( l) provides that notwith~tanding anything in any other law for the time being in force or in any usage to the contrary, no person shall slaughter any animal unless he has obtair:ed in respect thereof a certificate under sub-section (2) or sub-section (3) that the animal is fit for slaughter. As per sub-section (2) a certificate is required to be issued by the concerned authorities that the animal is over 14 years of age and is unfit for work of breeding or that the animal has become permariently incapacitated from work or breeding due to age, injury, deformity or any incurable disease. Sub-section (3) deals with a case where there is a difference of opinion between the concerned authorities from which initially a certificate is to be obtained. As per section 5 even if there is a certificate enabling a person to get concerned animal slaughtered he cannot slaughter it in any place other than the place prescribed in that behalf. As per section 7 whoever contravenes the provision of the Act shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees or with both. Section 8 makes the offences cognizable under the Act. Section 9 prescribes punishment for abetment of offences or even attempts to commit any such offence under the Act.

The aforesaid relevant provisions clearly indicate the legislative intention that healthy cows which are not fit to be slaughtered cannot be slaughtered at all. That is the thrust of section 4 of the Act. In other words there is total ban against slaughtering of healthy cows and other animals mentioned in the schedule under section 2 of the Act. This is the very

STATE v. ASHUTOSH LAHIRI [MAJMUDAR, J.) 521

522 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1994] SUPP. 5 S.C.R .

A exemption under section 12 of the Act then such exemption would get granted for a purpose which is not an essential one and to that extent the exemption would be treated to have been lightly or cursorily granted. Such is not the scope and ambit of section 12. We must, therefore, hold that before the State can exercise the exemption power under section 12 in connection with slaughter of any healthy animal covered by the Act, it must B be shown that such exemption is necessary to be granted for sub-serving an essential religious, medicinal or research purpose. If granting of such exemption is not essential or necessary for effectuating such a purpose no such exemption can be granted so as to by-pass the thrust of the main provisions of the Act. We, therefore, reject the contention of the learned counsel· for the appellants that even for an optional religious purpose c exemption can be validly granted under section 12. In this connection it is also necessary to consider Quareshi 's case (supra) which was heavily relied upon by the High Court. The total ban of slaughter of cows even on Bakri ldd day as imposed by Bihar Legislature under Bihar Prevention of Animals Act, 1955 was attacked as violative of fundamental right of the petitioners under Article 25 of the Constitution. Repelling this contention D the Constitution Bench held that even though Article 25 {l) granted to all persons the freedom to profess, practise and propagate religion, as slaughter of cows on Bakri ldd was not an essential religious practice for Muslims, total ban on cow's slaughter on all days including Bakri ldd day would not be violative of Article 25 (I). As we have noted earlier the Constitution Bench speaking through Das C.J., held that it was optional to the Muslims E to sacrifice a cow on behalf of seven persons on Bakri Idd but it does not appear to be obligatory that a person must sacrifice a cow. It was further observed by the Constitution Bench that the very fact of an option seemed to run counter to the notion of an obligatory duty. One submission was also noted that a person with six other members of his family may afford to sacrifice a cow but but may not be able to afford to sacrifice seven goats, F and it was observed that in such a case there may be an economic compulsion although there was no religious compulsion. In this connectio·n, Das C.J., referred to the historical background regarding cow slaughtering from the times· of Mughal emperors. Mughal Emperor Bahar saw the wisdom of prohibiting the slaughter of cows and by way of· religious sacrifice and directed his son Humayn to follow this. Similarly, emperors G Akbar, Jahangir and Ahmad Shah, it is said, prohibited cow slaughter. In the light of this historical background it was held that total ban on cows slaughter did not offend Article 25 (l) of the Constitution.

In view of this settled legal position it becomes obvious that if there is. H no fundamental right of a Muslim to insist on slaughter of healthy cow on

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Bakri Idd day, it cannot be a valid ground for exemption by the State under A section 12 which would in turn enable slaughtering of such cows on Bakri Idd. The contention of learned counsel for the appellant that Article 25 (1) of the Constitution deals with essential religious practices while Section 12 of the Act may cover even optional religious practices is not acceptable. No such meaning can be assigned to such an exemption clause which seeks to whittle down and dilute the main provision of the Act, namely, section 4 B which is the very heart of the Act. If the appellants, contention is accepted then the State can exempt from the operation of the Act, the slaughter of healthy cows even for non-essential religious, medicinal or research purpose, as we have to give the same meaning to the three purposes, namely, religious, medicinal or research purpose, as envisaged by section

12. It becomes obvious that if for fructifying any medicinal or research C purpose it is not necessary or essential to permit slaughter of healthy cow, then there would be no occasion for the State to invoke exemption power under section 12 of the Act for such a purpose. Similarly it has to be held that if it is not necessary or essential to permit slaughter of a healthy cow for any religious purpose it would be equally not open to the State to invoke its exemption power under section 12 for such a religious purpose. We, D therefore, entirely concur with the view of the High Court that slaughtering of healthy cows on Bakri Idd" is not essential or required for religious purpose of Muslims or in other words it is not a part of religious requirement for a Muslim that a cow must be necessarily sacrificed for earning ieligious merit on Bakri Idd. E We may also mention one submission of Mr. Tarkunde that India is a secular democratic country and, therefore, that State has to respect the wishes of minority. In the appeals at hand we are concerned with the short question whether in the light of clear wording of section 12, the State can exempt from the operation of the Act slaughtering of healthy cows on Bakri F Idd. For deciding this, ours being a secular country would not be relevant. Mr. Tarkunde next submitted that as per Gujarat rules slaughtering of cows on Bakri Idd is considered a bonafide religious purpose. Even this aspect is not relevant for deciding the parameters of section 12 of the West Bengal Act, even if that be the position in Gujarat presently, which is not so according to the learned counsel for the respondents. G We may also deal with the effort made by the learned counsel for the appellants to distinguish Quareshi's case on the ground that for interpreting the term 'religious' under Articles 25 and 26, a restricted meaning was given for balancing the secular nature of democracy on the one hand and the interest of the individual so for as right to practise any religion is H

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A concerned on the other. In this connection, our attention was invited to the decisions of this Court in Ti/kayat Shir Govindlalji Maharaj v. The State of Rajasthan and Others, [1994] 1 S.C.R 561 and The Durgah Committee, Ajmer and Anr., v. Syed Hussain Ali and Ors., [1962] I S.C.R. 383. These decisions are of no avail to the appellants as therein while dealing with the question of validity of certain enactments, scope of Articles 25 and 26 of B the Constitution was spelt out and nothing has been held in these decisions which is contrary to what was decided in Quareshi case, which we have noted in detail. The effort made by learned counsel for the appellants to get any and every religious practice covered by section 12 also is of no avail for the simple reason that in the context of section 12 the religious practice must be such which requires the invocation of exemption provision under c section 12 so as to by-pass the main thrust of section 4. For such an exercise non-essential religious practices cannot be made the basis. Reliance placed on the decision of this Court in Hazrat Kair Mohd. Shah v. Commissioner ofIncome Tax, Gujarat, (1967) 63 l.T.R. 490 SC, also is of no assistance as the same refers to section 11 of the Income Tax Act, the scheme of which is entirely different from that of the Act. Even if we agree with learned counsel for the appellants that slaughter of a healthy cow on Bakri Idd is for a religious purpose, so long as it is not shown to be an essential religious purpose as discussed by us earlier, section 12 of the Act cannot be pressed in service for buttressing such a non-essential religious purpose.

Before parting we may mention that one preliminary objection was raised before the High Court about the petitioners, locus standi to move the writ petition. The High Court held that it was a public interest litigation and the writ petitioners have sufficient locus standi to move the petition. That finding of the High Court was not challenged by any of the appellants. In our view rightly so as the writ petitioners representing a Hindu segment of society had felt aggrieved by the impugned exemption granted by the State. F They had no personal interest but a general cause to project. Consequently, they had sufficient locus standi to move the petition. Rule 7 framed under the Act, provides that provisions of the West Bengal Animal Slaugftter Control Act, 1950, shall not apply to the slaughter of any animal for religious, medicinal or research purpose subject to the condition that such slaughter does not affect the religious sentiment of the neighbours of the per~on or persons performing such slaughter and that· the previous permission of the State Government or any officer authorised by it is obtained before the slaughter. The case of the original writ petitioners before the High Court was based on religious sentiments and, therefore, they had moved this public interest litigation. In these circumstances, no fault could be found with the decision of the High Court recognising locus

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standi of the original petitioners to move this public interest litigation A which we have found to be well justified on merits.

In the result, we confirm the decision of the High Court and dismiss these appeals. Interim reliefs granted earlier during the pendency of the appeals shall stand vacated. In the facts and circumstances of the case, there will be no order as to costs. B A.G. Appeals dismissed.