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Uttarakhand HC issues contempt notice to Haridwar DM, SSP, and urban development secretary

DEHRADUN: An Uttarakhand high court (HC) bench led by Justice Manoj Tiwari issued contempt notices to state’s urban development secretary, Haridwar’s district magistrate and city’s senior superintendent of police for not complying with the court’s order on slaughter of animals in the open.


The move comes after Mohammad Vaseem, petitioner in the case, presented various photographs showing slaughter of animals out in the open in Haridwar before the court.

The blood of these slaughtered animals goes into drains and ultimately flows into the holy Ganga river, Vaseem added.

Earlier on September 20, 2018, the HC had ordered a ban on the slaughter of animals in open in the state. The court had also directed officials to shut all illegal slaughter houses in the state.

Kartikey Hari Gupta, Vaseem’s counsel, told TOI that the petitioner had filed a contempt petition in January this year, following which the HC took a serious view of the violation of its orders regarding animal slaughter in the open.

“Previously, the court had summoned Deepak Rawat, the then district magistrate of Haridwar, who had assured the court that no illegal slaughter of animals shall take place in Haridwar but that promise wasn’t delivered upon. Taking a serious note of the violation of the HC order, contempt notices have now been issued to Shailesh Bagoli, secretary urban development, Deepender Chaudhary, district magistrate Haridwar, and Senthil Avoodai Krishna Raj, senior superintendent of police, Haridwar,” added Gupta.

According to Gupta, the high court, in previous hearings, had observed that the matter being raised by the petitioner is of grave public importance. “The petitioner has placed pictures of the animals being brutally slaughtered on record. These pictures were disturbing and have pricked the conscience of the court,” said Gupta.

In an earlier high court directive in the case, the state Government was asked to constitute a committee for slaughter houses as per a ministry of environment and forest letter (dated 26.04.2012) within a period of seven days from the day of the order. The court had also asked the state government to not permit slaughter house to run without complying with the food safety and standards (licensing and registration of food businesses) regulations of 2011.

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