Kerala HC declines to stay Centre's ban on cattle sale

The Kerala High Court today declined to stay the Centre's ban on the sale of cattle for slaughter.

Considering a batch of petitions challenging rule 22 of the notification imposing restrictions on the sale of cattle last week, Justice P B Suresh Kumar had said that the court would consider the application for the stay of the notification after seeing the Centre's counter.

It had directed the Centre to file its counter affidavit on the impact of the notification banning sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter from animal markets.

The Centre, however, did not inform its stand on the issue today.

Posting the case for hearing on June 26, the court today directed the Centre to file the counter affidavit before the next hearing.

A division bench had last week declined to entertain a PIL seeking quashing of the Centre's notification banning sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter, observing that there was no constitutional violation in the rules.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh had observed that its interference in the Centre's notification was not warranted.

The bench had said it could not see any prohibition in selling and consumption of beef in the notification, following which the PIL was withdrawn by petitioner A G Sunil.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)