Photographs showing slaughter of camels in public places and animals lying in a pool of blood for agonizingly long periods in Chennai have shocked the conscience of the Madras high court which slammed the authorities for flatly denying that animals were being killed in public.
Noting that the bench was “totally fed up“ with the unhelpful government pleader STS Moorthy and that judges had to fend for themselves while hearing and disposing of cases, the first bench com prising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam said, “The gruesome photographs filed with the petition also do not seem to trouble the authorities.These photographs show slaughter of camels in public places and yet the Corporation of Chennai has the temerity to say that no slaughter is taking place, as no permission is granted.“
Slamming authorities for telling the court that camels were being slaughtered as part of religious festivals, the bench said: “We are also surprised at the stand taken that camels are slaughtered for religious purposes and therefore any action has to be taken “cautiously“. We fail to understand how slaughtering can take place in an unregulated manner all over the city , that too in public places. Slaughtering can take place only in slaughterhouses, at designated places. Different authorities are passing on the burden to the other, giving no solution to the problem.“
The bench then formed a committee to tackle the problem and said: “Since the authorities were not able to have an effective internal coordination to examine the issue as a whole, we feel a committee has to be appointed to make necessary recommendations to this court in a short period of time. The committee would have representatives from animal husbandry , dairy and fisheries department, road transport, Chennai Corporation, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Animal Welfare Board of India and Food Safety and Standard Author ity of India.“ R Srinivas, counsel for one of the petitioners, too will be part of the committee, it said, adding that its first meeting should be held within a week and preliminary recommendations should be ready before September 14, the next date of hearing.
The judges were passing orders on the PILs of E Seshan and People for Cattle in India against illegal transport of camels into Tamil Nadu, and sacrifice of animals during festivals in violation of rules.
“This seems to suggest as if different departments of government are incapable of coordination between themselves unless directions are issued by this court,“ rued the bench.
