The Uttarakhand High Court stayed a state government notification declaring the entire district of Haridwar as a “slaughter free area” and allowed the slaughter of animals for Eid al- Adha on July 10 at a slaughterhouse in the Manglaur municipality.
Division Bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice RC Khulbe directed that on Eid al-adha, slaughtering of animals should be done only at the legally compliant slaughterhouse - constructed in public-private partnership.
On March 3, 2021, the BJP government declared urban local bodies in Haridwar district - two municipal corporations, two Nagar Palika Parishads and five Nagar Panchayats - Slaughter Free Areas and cancelled clearances issued to operate slaughterhouses. The urban development departments notification came ahead of the Kumbh Mela. BJP MLAs from the area had earlier given a letter to them chief minister Trivendra Rawat, demanding that slaughterhouses should not be allowed in a religious city like Haridwar.
Faisal Hussain, a Haridwar resident, approached the high court saying the slaughter of animals was an essential religious practice in lslam and that for the Eid al-Adha festival, the slaughtering of animals should be allowed at the abattoir in Manglaur, which was constructed last year but could not function owing to the blanket ban on animal slaughter in the district.
The petitioner contended that since last one year, the slaughter house could not operate due to blanket ban imposed via government notification dated March 3, 2021 on slaughtering of animals in the entire district of Haridwar.
The bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and JRC Khulbe today stayed the government notification as regards its applicability to Manglaur town for Bakri eid celebration on July 10,2022.
[Ifatakhar & Others v. State of Uttarakhand & Others].
