Slaughtering, consuming or buying camel meat illegal: High Court

Hyderabad: Slaughtering, consuming or buying camel meat is illegal, here it seems to be a tradition of consuming camel meat. People might be under the impression that since it has been a tradition over the last few decades.

People may think it's a legal act rather than an illegal one until the Government authorities do inform the public at large. 'Therefore please stop committing this illegal act, unless concerned authorities make people aware they are not able to stop this', the High Court CJ Bench opined.

The High Court Bench comprising of Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy heard the public interest litigation filed by Dr Kopanati Shashikala and the counsel for the petitioner Adepu Divya alleged that the State authorities are not taking action against the illegal transport of camels into the State of Telangana and slaughtering them as inhumane, illegal, unconstitutional and contrary to the provisions of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

The CJ bench queried with the State that the court has constituted a committee in 2007, what is its track record for the last 13 years, camel is not wildlife, then what has the state animal welfare board has done to safeguard the camels in the State.

Knowing fully well that Bakrid is around the corner of the month, how many slaughterhouses have been raided to find out what sort of meat they are selling. Why do we not have publicity using print and electronic media, informing the people at large that this is prohibited, by consuming or buying such meat, in fact, violating the law. Therefore it is liable for punishment, whether it is in terms of fine or in terms of jail, the Bench added.

Counsel for GHMC A. Sanjeev Kumar informed the Bench that as per police report, in this year 2020 till now there is no illegal transportation of camels in the state, in view of Bakrid, separate teams have been constituted for surveillance not only in the regular meat shops, but also in the licensed or unlicensed shops, also in bylanes conducting surveillance exercise.

Chief Justice pointed out that how many unlicensed meat shops are running in the city of Hyderabad, because of the high consumption of meat in the Telangana State. It's practically a butcher shop in every third lane of every neighbourhood, in fact, I find there are more butcher shops than I have seen in Rajasthan, CJ added.

CJ Chauhan said 'let us know by July 29 how many inspections have been done, how many cases have been booked for illegal activity, let them be vigilant for the coming 10 days, let us see how much action will be taken by the concerned authorities.