Court on Maharashtra 'misinterpreting' animal sacrifice order: Not what we said

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Maharashtra government for "misinterpreting" its order permitting the slaughtering of animals and birds at Vishalgad Fort in Kolhapur district on the occasion of Bakri Eid and Urs.

"Our order has been misinterpreted. This is not what we said. This unnecessarily sends a wrong message that you are trying to create disharmony and unrest," the court told the government pleaders.

Last week, a bench of Justices BP Colabawalla and Firdosh Pooniwalla passed an interim order by which the court had set aside a directive issued by the Director of Archaeology and Museums, Mumbai, the Superintendent of Police, Kolhapur and the Chief Executive Officer Zilla Parishad, Kolhapur, which banned slaughtering of animals and birds at Vishalgad.

However, despite the interim order, the slaughtering could not take place amid heavy police deployment, according to the villagers.

The Vishalgad Fort houses a dargah, and the trustees, along with some private individuals, had approached the court after the authorities had said that no sacrificing would be allowed this year. Although the High Court permitted sacrifices, the authorities did not permit the villagers to slaughter animals, which is claimed to be a 900-year-old tradition.

Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Satish Talekar urgently mentioned a plea for a hearing as after Bakri Eid, a Urs is also set to take place till June 21, when the sacrifices happen.

Talekar submitted that the authorities had said that the high court order only permitted the dargah trustees and some private individuals who had approached the court as petitioners to carry out sacrifices. As a mark of protest, they did not undertake the ritual, the advocate said.

He alleged that the authorities were preventing the sacrificing of animals at the behest of certain right-wing organisations.

After coming down heavily on the state government, the court noted that it had passed a direction permitting sacrifices after a detailed hearing.

"We formed an opinion and permitted the petitioners to slaughter animals during Bakri Eid and Urs. We had made it clear that the sacrificing can take place only in a private place," the bench said.

"The matter was urgently moved by the petitioner in one of the petitions that the authorities only permitted the trustees of the dargah and petitioner in another plea was permitted to carry on with the slaughter. We are afraid that this is a wrong interpretation of our order," it said.

"Such an interpretation by the authorities would run counter to the observations made in the order. It does not just apply to the petitioners but to all devotees who come to offer sacrifice of animals and birds at the dargah till June 21. We hope that the authorities will not misinterpret and will follow the direction in letter and spirit," the court observed.