On May 6th the Bombay high court has upheld the Maharashtra government's law to ban the slaughter of bulls and bullocks, but has held as unconstitutional and the ban on possession of beef, a division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Suresh Gupte, has rejected a plea by the State to stay the part of the judgment that decriminalized the possession of beef.
In addition to an earlier ban on the slaughter of cows, the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act was enacted in March 2015 and bans the slaughter of bulls and bullocks and the law makes the sale of bulls, bullocks for slaughter a crime, punishable with a jail term of up to five years and a fine of Rs 10,000.
The ban on beef has stated that the said is a violation of the fundamental right to life and liberty, especially the right to be left alone and the many of the petitions have focused their challenge on section 5D, which makes possession a crime.
The Maharashtra state governance has also claimed that the making possession of beef a crime was necessary in order to ensure effective implementation of the ban.
