New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has observed that mere possession and transportation of cows within Uttar Pradesh cannot be deemed as offences under the state’s anti-cow slaughter law.“Mere possession of live cow/bullock by itself cannot amount to committing, abetting, or attempting an offence under the Act No. 1 of 1956…Mere transportation of the cow from one place to another within the Uttar Pradesh would not come within the ambit of Section 5 of U.P. Act No.1 of 1956,” said Justice Vikrant D Chauhan, according to Bar and Bench.The court passed the order on a bail plea of a man who was arrested and had been kept in jail for nearly three months after he was booked for offences under the UP Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1956 and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. Police arrested him after he was alleged to have been found transporting six cows in a vehilce. The court granted him bail after noting that the police could not produce any evidence to suggest that cows being transported suffered physical injury.“There is no witness to substantiate that the applicant has caused any physical injury to any cow or its progeny so as to endanger the life. No report of competent authority has been placed to show any physical injury was caused on the body of cow or bullock. There is no independent witness of the alleged recovery,” the court noted.It also further said the since the state was not able to produce any evidence that the accused did not cooperate with investigation, or that he has any criminal antecedents, the court said he is entitled to bail. The accused was granted bail on certain conditions including furnishing of a personal bond and two sureties of the like amount.The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Cow Slaughter Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 has provisions to punish accused under the law with maximum rigorous imprisonment of 10 years and a fine up to Rs 5 lakh. The stated aim of the law is to protect and prevent cow slaughter. The 2020 amendment to the 1955 law, brought in by the Yogi Adityanath government, is aimed making the existing law “more robust and effective and to completely stop the incidents pertaining to cow slaughter”, as per an official statement issued in 2020.Once the 2020 law came into force, the Uttar Pradesh government has arrested and booked a number of people, predominantly Muslims, on the charges such as they were causing physical inury to cows, slaughtering them, and illegally transporting them out of the state. The Allahabad high court, on a number occasions, pulled up the Adityanath government of “misusing” the law. There have also been several instances of Hindutva vigilante groups resorting to physical violence against Muslims accusing them of mistreating cows.
