LAW FOR COW PROTECTION- R. K. Joshi   
(Paper presented before the National Seminar on the need for Central Law for Cow Protection, held at Delhi on 19-20 September, 1998)

continued....from Page 3

Another relevant legal issue in connection with secure of animals being taken for clandestine slaughter was the locus stands of Panjrapoles of Gaushalas to seek interim custody. This issue has also been settled by the Gujarat High Court in the matter of Geetaben V.Shah V/s. State of Gujarat and the Court held that the Panjrapoles has locus to maintain a petition with respect to the interim custody of the animals seized for offences under the Act of 1960 or the ancillary Act.

It may be mentioned that as on date there is total prohibition on slaughter of cow and cow family under the State Legislations of the State of Rajasthan, Punjab, haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir. The laws enacted by the State of Bihar, M.P. and Gujarat have been struck down as they were challenged. Maharashtra has passed a legislation imposing total ban on slaughter of entire cow family. The bill has not received the assent of the President in view of these legal precedents. The State of U.P. had enacted a law during the first regime of Shri Kalyan Singh. The law was sent for the assent of the President. However, in view of dismissal of the Kalyansingh Government in the wake of Babri Masjid demolition, the Bill has lapsed.

Thus it will be observed that it is the legislative will of 11 major States in the country, consisting of 65% of land area and population, that there ought to be a law prohibiting slaughter of entire cow progeny. This itself is a major reason as to why the Centre should enact a Central law on this subject which may have uniform application throughout the country and which will result in saving of precious cattle wealth of the nation.

To achieve the object of enacting Central Law the course which has to be adopted is that the Constitution needs to be amended to bring the relevant entry into the 'Concurrent List' so that the Parliaments, gets power to legislate on this subject. Once this power is vested in the Parliament, law can be enacted with a simple majority. However, amending the Constitution in the present political scenario appears to be impossible. The BJP Government at the Centre, when it formed Government for the first time in 1996 (lasting for 13 days), had declared in its manifesto as well as in the Presidential address to the Parliament that it will enact Central Law banning slaughter of entire cow progency in the entire country.

This was stiffly apposed by Shri G.G. Swell an M.P. from Assam, Mr. G.M. Banatwala of Muslim League and Ms. Mamta Banerjee an M.P. from West Bengal, Considering the opposition to this issue by certain political parties, a smooth passage for this law (even if the Constitution is amended10 put the subject in concurrent list) also appears to be a tough task.

In this background, it is necessary that a nation-wide public opinion is created to put pressure on the Government and all the parties who are opposed to this issue are taken into confidence and their misconceptions or misgivings on this issue are removed by detailed dialogue. The protection of cow and cow progeny is not a religious issue at all. The importance of animals and their dung and their place in the ever-rotating cycle of Jal-raksha, Bhu-raksha, Van-raksha and Pashu-raksha needs to be

explained. For sustainable agriculture and overall sustainable economic development, our cattle wealth is most precious. It gives us dung both to meet our fuel need as well as our manure need. It help in growing cheap yet nutritious food grains, it retains and enriches the fertility of our soil which is our greatest capital and it helps in maintenance of ecological balance by avoiding use of chemical fertilisers, poisonous pesticides. This service needs to be highlighted both before the people arid before the Legislators and Parliamentarians of all the parties. Then only it will be possible to create a national consensus on this issue which may be backed by a suitable Central legislation.  >>>