The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed municipal corporations in Maharashtra to decide on a public interest litigation seeking a temporary ban on animal slaughter and the sale of meat during the Jain festival of Paryushan Parv, reported The Indian Express.
The festival will be observed between August 31 and September 7.
A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar issued the direction on a plea by the Pune-based public charitable trust Sheth Motishaw Lalbaug Jain Charities.
The petitioner said that 30 charitable trusts, other than itself, had sent representations to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other civic bodies seeking a temporary ban on animal slaughter during Paryushan Parv, Live Law reported.
“The Jain community constitutes a sizeable population in Maharashtra,” the petition said. “The community is aggrieved by the ‘conduct’ of the respondent authorities in not deciding the representations.”
The plea contended that “this situation adversely affects the sentiments of the Jain community, who find it deeply troubling to witness such practices at a time when they are striving to embody compassion and non-violence”, according to Live Law.
“This ongoing practice not only contradicts the very ethos of the festival but also creates an environment of dissonance and conflict between the values of non-violence that the festival represents and the realities of animal slaughter,” the group claimed.
In its order, the bench said it did not see any impediment in asking the municipal corporations to decide on the representations and told them to do so “urgently since the festival commences from [on] August 31.”
The court also clarified that it was not commenting on the merits of the plea and said that the authorities’ decision would need to be independent and legal.