The court’s Lucknow bench also said various food habits had flourished in Uttar Pradesh and these were an essential part of the state’s secular culture. “To provide an immediate check on unlawful activity should be simultaneous with facilitating the carrying of lawful activity, particularly that relating to food, food habits and vending thereof that is undisputedly connected with the right to life and livelihood,” justices Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Sanjai Harkauli said on April 3. In response, the state government told the court here was no plan to ban consumption of meat or to close all slaughterhouses. The intention was to ban illegal slaughter houses and regulate their functioning in keeping with a Supreme Court order, it said. The court had on March 28 asked the government to place before it the order or instruction under which the drive for closure of illegal meat shops was being undertaken.

Source: Hindustan Times April 05, 2017 11:52 UTC