SC to settle Kashmir’s beef ban confusion

The Supreme Court has accepted for hearing a petition of the Jammu and Kashmir government that it should ensure there is uniformity and consistency in judicial pronouncements in the backdrop of the beef ban controversy.

The petition is listed for hearing on 5 October. The state government has received two conflicting directives on the beef ban controversy from two wings of J&K High Court.

While the Jammu wing has asked the government to impose ban in letter and spirit on the slaughter and sale of beef, the Srinagar wing of the High Court has given it three weeks to respond to a writ petition filed by Afzal Qadri, a retired professor, that sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), making bovine slaughter and sale of beef a criminal offence, be deleted.

The state government in its petition before Supreme Court said that the two conflicting High Court directives have the potential of disrupting peace and communal harmony in the state and adding to the “sense of alienation”. Police has registered dozens of FIRs against people for slaughtering bovine and sale of beef.