The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh governments to come up with "suggestions and inputs" for putting in place long- term measures to stop illegal transportation of cattle to Nepal.
"We have been informed that Bihar and West Bengal have filed their suggestions. The Centre, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh seek further time. They can file their suggestions within four weeks with the registry," a bench of justices J S Khehar and S A Bobde said. The court is hearing a PIL that alleged a large number of cattle is exported illegally to Nepal for Gadhimai festival held once in five years. The festival took place on November 28 and 29, 2014.
The PIL, filed by Gauri Maulekhi, sought directions to the Centre and states like Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, which share border with Nepal, for putting in place a comprehensive mechanism to stop illegal trafficking of cattle to the neighbouring country. During hearing, senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Maulekhi, said he also wanted to file suggestions on behalf of the PIL petitioner. The court allowed the plea.
Earlier, the court had asked the Centre and the states bordering Nepal to maintain tight vigil on the international border and ensure that no illegal transportation of cattle takes place for being sacrificed during the Gadhimai festival.
Seeking suggestions from all the states concerned and the Centre, it had hailed the efforts undertaken by them and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) on the issue. Besides arresting around 70 people, SSB had rescued nearly 2,000 animals from being illegally sent to Nepal. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar had informed the bench that only those people having licence can be allowed to export cattle and an order has already been passed by the government to stop illegal "infiltration" of animals to Nepal.
The Centre had told the court that it cannot do anything to ensure that animals are not sacrificed in Nepal. The bench had then said it also cannot pass any order regarding treatment of animals in the neighbouring country.
But it said it would pass a direction to prevent torture of animals while they are being taken to Nepal.
The petitioner alleged that 5,00,000 animals are slaughtered over two days in the festival and over 70% of the animals sacrificed there are brought illegally from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
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