New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking a ban on illegal slaughterhouses running in the national capital and neighbouring areas, saying the petitioner has not given details about any of them.
“You have not given one single example of any illegal slaughterhouse. You want us to do fishing and roving inquiry in the entire Delhi. Where is the list of slaughterhouses?,” a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said.
The counsel for the petitioner said it was not possible to know the exact number as in each local market, such illegal slaughterhouses are functional.
After some arguments, the counsel sought liberty to withdraw the petition and file a fresh one with the necessary details of illegal slaughterhouses.
The court said the petition is dismissed as withdrawn.
Petitioner Deepak Upadhayay sought to ban the illegal slaughterhouses running in Delhi-NCR and to ensure that the sole mechanised and modern slaughterhouse at Ghazipur here is utilised to its optimum capacity and supplies healthy meat for domestic consumption in the city.
“The issue is of utmost importance since we are living in times of COVID pandemic and ensuring the quality of meat being supplied in the market is one of the important factors to check the spread of these types of epidemics,” he said.
This petition arises in the context and background of flagrant violations of acts, rules, and regulations governing the operations of slaughterhouses as well as various judgements and orders of the Supreme Court which has banned the operation of illegal slaughtering and laid down stringent standards for be followed by slaughterhouses, the plea said.
The petition, through advocates Gautam Jha, Pankaj Kumar, and Sweta Jha, said the Central Pollution Control Board has been piloting the efforts to get the problem of illegal slaughterhouses addressed through the cooperation of all state pollution control boards and other agencies.
However, the problem of illegal slaughtering and slaughterhouses continue unabated in Delhi thereby risking the lives of the residents.
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