Cattle slaughter law in Bengal/ To enforce or not

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Uh, Momita, how do you read this?

[00:00:01]Because the big question that has been put over here is that just ahead of Bakri, you have a very important law of 1950 being enforced. It's there. The law exists. The question is about enforcement. But then the question as we have uh Mr. Pandey in fact pointing out that there is no infrastructure to which you can go ahead with this enforcement.

[00:00:22]So, should we wait for the enforcement to happen only after the infrastructure happens? Or again, does that mean that we have to again delay an enforcement of a law that is was brought up way back in 1950?

[00:00:36]Um Momita, again, unmute your uh mic.

[00:00:40]Yeah, I think I'm audible now.

[00:00:41]>> Yeah. So, for decades, many people in Bengal believe that laws existed only on paper, but today something important has happened and changed. The government of West Bengal has decided to strictly enforce the West Bengal Animal Slaughter Control Act of 1950, a law that was passed not by a modern political party, but by the state itself nearly 75 years ago. And secondly, I would like to add just give me one Yeah, Supreme Court has already made its position very clear on this issue. In the case of State of West Bengal versus Ashutosh Lahiri, the West Bengal government had given certain relaxations for cow slaughter during Bakri. The Supreme Court struck that down and clearly it said that the cow sacrifice is not an essential religious fact in Islam. Therefore, a state has the constitutional right to continue a ban on cow slaughter cow slaughter. Even earlier in the landmark case of Muhammad Hanif Qureshi versus State of Bihar, the Supreme Court observed that while Qurbani is important in Islam, but sacrificing a cow is definitely not compulsory. So, Muslims can perform their Qurbani using the other animal as well. The court also made it very clear that the But ma'am, in this is not about cow cow slaughter alone, you know. The kind The definition is huge. You have bulls, you have bullocks, you have buffaloes, both male and female, that have been added onto that cattle list.

[00:02:11]Now, it's a huge list that is there. So, when you talk about that, especially, it's not about only about cows as such we are talking about. The question is that if there's a law that says that don't do the sacrifice in the public space, agreeable. Well, >> is how when you enforce it. Do you have the infrastructure to enforce it?

[00:02:30]See, first of all, you have to understand one thing. When any community Do you talk about any community? You talk about Muslim, you talk about Hindu, you talk about any other community. When they are living in a specific country, the every community has the right to, you know, to follow the constitution and the law of that country. If you go to Saudi Arabia, I'm sure you cannot just have the worship publicly. You cannot do Durga Puja publicly. You cannot have Saraswati Puja publicly. But in your private room, you can do that. But our country is actually trying to protect the cow because there are some other elements >> in Saudi Arabia is different. Let's not go into the The law in Saudi Arabia is different. Over here, there is reasonable restriction that is put through the constitution and that reasonable restrictions we see, like for example, the cow slaughter act of 1950, which is a reasonable restriction that has been put into place. So, the law is very different over here. There is an element of where it is allowed through slaughter. They have in fact prescribed the slaughter that you need to get a certification. You need, you know, to not to be done in public spaces. Those things are there.