HC refuses to modify order prohibiting animal slaughter in homes on Bakrid

The Bombay High Court on Thursday refused to modify its previous order prohibiting the slaughter of animals this Bakrid inside individual flats or houses and imposing riders on such slaughter in housing societies.

A group of residents and some private associations had moved the court on Thursday, seeking permission to slaughter animals within the common areas inside housing societies at least for this year.

On Tuesday, a bench of justices S C Dharmadhikari and G S Patel had restrained the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from granting permission for slaughter of animals to housing societies located within one kilometre of a community space or a religious plot that can be used as an alternative site.

The petitioners urged the court on Thursday to remove the one-kilometre rider, arguing that most of the existing community spaces were inadequate to host slaughters.

The bench, however, refused to do so, saying that it could not permit anything that might interfere with maintaining "public health and hygiene".

It said Mumbai wasn't the "only city in the world" where slaughter was carried out for Bakrid.

"Many cities in the world allow such slaughter, but nowhere is it permitted in the open," the bench said.

The court took note of BMC counsel Anil Sakhre's submission that the civic body had made arrangements for the slaughter of 2,50,000 animals in the city this Bakrid.

Sakhre also said that there existed over 300 defunct "slaughter chambers" attached to meat shops in the city.

This space could be used as the recommended community spaces for slaughter by housing societies, he said.

The bench, however, permitted housing societies to make applications before the BMC for slaughter within their respective premises and directed the civic body to use its discretion while granting permissions keeping in mind the HC's August 6 order.