Animal Sacrifice In Tripura: SC To Hear State's Appeal; Orders To Set Up An Area To Slaughter Animals [Read Order]

The Supreme Court will hear the appeal filed by the Tripura Government against the High Court order which banned Animal Sacrifice in the temples in the state.

While granting leave, the bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat issued this interim order:

By way of an interim order, we direct that in the meantime, if any slaughter of animals is done for the purposes involved in these petitions, it shall be done in an area which is set up in accordance with law. The Municipal Authority shall ensure such compliance. The Animal Welfare Board of India and Mrs. Gauri Maulekhi may be heard on the setting up of such area.

This means that it has virtually issued a partial stay of the High Court order with a caveat that any slaughtering of animals for the purpose of animal sacrifice can be done 'in accordance with law' in an 'area' set up by the Municipal Authority after hearing Animal Welfare Board and Gauri Maulekhi, an animal rights activist in India.

Tagged with pending appeal against Himachal Pradesh HC Judgment

The bench has tagged this matter with a pending appeal against the judgment of Himachal Pradesh High Court. In the said appeal also, the same order as above was passed in April 2017. In a judgment delivered in 2014, the Himachal Pradesh High Court had banned animal/bird sacrifice in the temples and public places. One of the directives in the order read as follows: No person throughout the State of Himachal Pradesh shall sacrifice any animal or bird in any place of religious worship, adoration or precincts or any congregation or procession connected with religious worship, on any public street, way or place, whether a thoroughfare or not, to which the public are granted access to or over which they have a right to pass.

The judgment of the High Court may be read here.

Tripura HC Judgment

The Tripura High Court had banned animal/birds sacrifice in the temples of the state observing that the animals also have fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

No person including the State shall be allowed to sacrifice of any animal/bird within the precincts of any one of the temples within the State of Tripura, declared the bench comprising of the Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Arindam Lodh. It said that the sacrifice of an animal in a temple, not being an essential part of religion, is also violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India. 

More about the High Court judgment can be read here.

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