Supreme Court pulls up Assam govt in beef case: ‘Should have better things to do’
Hearing a case linked to the alleged transportation of beef, the Supreme Court pulled up the Assam government on Friday, saying it “should have better things to do” than chasing such people.The apex court was hearing the case of a man who was accused of transporting beef.
A bench comprising Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan stayed criminal proceedings against the accused and posted the matter on April 16.
“State should have better things to do than running after these people,” the bench observed after the government’s lawyer informed the court that the meat sample was being sent to a lab for testing, reported PTI.
The court questioned the government’s counsel on how a person could know that he was transporting beef when it is not possible to differentiate between beef and meat of other animals by physical inspection.
“How will a person know only if there is beef or some other meat? If a person is in possession how will he recognise it is meat of which animal? Naked eyes cannot differentiate between them,” said the court.
The accused’s counsel submitted that his client was a warehouse owner and had only transported the packaged raw meat.The bench posted the matter for hearing in April.Last year, the Assam government banned serving and consuming beef in restaurants, hotels and public places.
“We have decided to ban serving and consumption of beef in restaurants, hotels and public places,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference in December.
“In Assam, we have decided that beef will not be served in any restaurant or hotel and also it will not be served in any public function or public place, so from today we have completely decided to stop the consumption of beef in hotels, restaurants and public places. Earlier we decided to stop eating beef near temples but now we have expanded it to the entire state that you will not be able to eat it in any community place, public place, hotel or restaurant,” he added.
