Dehradun: A state government notification that declared the entire Haridwar district as a "slaughter-free area" has been stayed by the Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday and allowed the slaughter of animals for Eid al-Adha on July 10 at a slaughterhouse in the district's Manglaur municipality.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice RC Khulbe ordered that the slaughter of animals on Eid-ul-Adha should be carried out only in a legitimate - public-private partnership constructed slaughterhouse in the municipality, and directed the civic body to publish the court order.
They also directed the petitioner who challenged the government order to ensure that slaughter is not conducted anywhere else in the district.
On March 3 last year, the BJP government declared urban local bodies in Haridwar district—two municipal corporations, two nagar palika parishads and five nagar panchayats—as "slaughter-free areas" and revoked permits for running slaughterhouses. The urban development department's notification came ahead of the Kumbh Mela.
BJP MLAs from the area had earlier written to the then Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat asking him not to allow slaughterhouses in a "religious city like Haridwar".
Faisal Hussain, a native of Haridwar, approached the High Court asking that the slaughter of cattle is an Islamic practice and that animals should be allowed to be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse in Manglaur for the Eid-ul-Adha celebrations. The district slaughterhouse has been unable to function due to the ban on animal slaughter.
Hussain's lawyer Kartikey Hari Gupta showed the court a photograph of last year's Eid al-Adha celebrations, during which, despite all prohibitions, animals were slaughtered on a large scale in the open streets of Manglaur. Gupta argued that banning slaughter without enabling legal slaughterhouses will not solve any problem.
He submitted that 87.45 per cent of the population of the municipality were Muslims. The area is 45 km from Haridwar town, he said, adding that the religious sentiments of Hindus would not be hurt if animals were allowed to be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse in Manglaur.
Confirming the court stay on the government order, Gupta told The Indian Express that the slaughterhouse was built in February last year and a blanket ban on animal slaughter was imposed within a week of its owners applying to start operations.
"In 2011 the high court ordered the construction of a slaughterhouse within three years. But it did not happen, and only in 2016 did the state government permit the Manglaur nagar palika to construct the slaughterhouse in the PPP model. The construction was completed in February 2021. In March, however, the government declared the entire Haridwar district slaughter-free. We challenged this and said that Manglaur is 45 km away from Haridwar town and thus will not affect the religious sentiments of Hindus. We also mentioned that the slaughterhouse was sanctioned by the government itself," he said.