A mooing court story from Uttar Pradesh

Scores of cattle destined for slaughter but seized by the police last year when they were being transported will now appear before a trial court in Uttar Pradesh because they happen to be ‘case property’.

Under the law, case property has to be produced before the trial court as proof of offence. The animals were “seized” and their owner arrested under Sections 3, 5 and 8 of the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act. 1955.

The owner has also been charged under section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, and would face trial in the chief judicial magistrate’s court at Shahjahanpur.

The police also refused to release the truck in which the livestock were being transported. The trial court and the sessions court said the truck was ‘case property’ and therefore cannot be handed over to its owner till the case was  decided. However, the Allahabad high court ruled different.

“The case property is the livestock and not the vehicle of transport. The vehicle is only a means of transport,’’ it said.

To prove that the owner had defied enactments that prohibit torture, cruelty and trafficking of livestock, the presence of the ‘case property’, which is the livestock, would be necessary, the trial and session courts said.