The Allahabad High Court while quashing the arrest of 5
The Allahabad High Court while quashing the arrest of 5 people booked under the National Security Act (NSA) observing that cutting cow beef in the secrecy of one’s own house in the wee hours of the day was probably because of poverty or hunger, and was at best a law and order issue.
Parvez and Others v. State of UP
The Division Bench comprising of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav ordered the release of the accused quashing detention under NSA unless they were wanted in connection with some other criminal case.
“…an act of slaughtering a cow in the secrecy of one’s own house , would perhaps only involve a law and order issue and could not be said to stand on the same footing as a situation where a number of cattle have been slaughtered outside in public view and the public transport of their flesh or an incident where aggressive attack is made by the slaughterers against the complaining public, which may involve infractions of public order,” the court said.
The accused were taken by the police on account of the butchering of a cow at one of the accused premises. The recovered meat from the premises, after an investigation by a veterinary doctor, was approved to be the meat of beef.
The police registered an FIR under Sections 3, 5, 8 of the U.P. Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 and Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 against all the 5 accused.
The court opined that it would be relevant to mention that the accused were mutely arrested when they were found cutting beef in the wee hours of the morning.
Further, the court noted that it is a matter of quality and degree whether the act has been done in the public gaze and in an aggressive manner with scant regard to the sentiments of the other community or whether it has been done in a concealed manner, which can resolve the question whether the case is one involving public order, or is only a matter affecting law and order.
“It was a solitary incident of cutting cow beef in pieces away from the public eye. There was no resistance when the petitioners Parvez and Irfan and the other co-accused were being arrested by the police at that time,” the court said.
