‘Don’t eat meat for one or two days’: Gujarat HC tells petitioners in Ahmedabad
The Gujarat High Court has asked petitioners opposing Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s (AMC) decision to close the city’s only slaughterhouse from August 24 to August 31 to not eat meat for a few days.
The petitioner—Kul Hind Jamait-Al Quresh Action Committee Gujarat—told the High Court that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) order ‘restrains’ people’s right to food. The AMC ordered city’s only slaughterhouse to pull down its shutters between August 24 and 31 and September 4 and 9 due to festivals.
Petitioner Danish Qureshi Razaiwala stated that this is not about restraining oneself but about fundamental rights, adding closure of slaughterhouses can be stopped from the future.
He further said that only one slaughterhouse is operational in Ahmedabad. Justice Bhatt was quoted as saying by Times of India, “You can restrain yourself for one or two days from eating meat…”
The Gujarat High Court asked the state government whether it tried to remove non-vegetarian food handcarts from streets and stalls selling eggs and other food items made of eggs after a petition alleged such a drive was going on. The Bhupendrabhai Patel-led state government has squarely denied this allegation.
This is a contentious issue since 2008 when the Supreme Court upheld the municipal corporation’s decision to close the slaughterhouse during the Jain festival. At that time, AMC promised the slaughterhouse would be closed for 11 days.
