Delhi HC issues notice on plea seeking extension of prohibition on slaughter of cows to old bulls, buffaloes

New Delhi [India], February 2 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre on a PIL seeking extension of the prohibition on slaughter of cows to old-useless bulls, bullocks and old buffaloes and male counterparts without any further delay.
The Petitioner submits that old-useless bulls, bullocks and old buffaloes become useless as animals for agricultural work or breeding but continue to provide dung and urine that can either be used by farmers as manure and fertilizer or can be sold by the owners of such otherwise useless cattle.
The Division Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on Wednesday sought response of Centre through the Ministry of Home Affairs and listed the matter for March 15, 2022.
The petitioner Brishbhan Verma, a resident of Madhya Pradesh through Advocate Prashant Shukla stated that an interpretation of Article 48 of the Constitution of India, states that the prohibition on killing/slaughtering of any animal and their progeny excluding the male counterpart violates Fundamental Rights of the Petitioner under Article 21 of Constitution of India of the Petitioner, as allowing slaughtering of old-useless bulls, bullocks and old buffaloes up to a certain age, led to wrong interpretation of Article of 48 Constitution of India.
The plea further submitted that if one knows how cow dung can be used as medicine to cure snake bites, then it can be a cheap and viable alternative for curing the same. It also mentions that the cow and its original species are on the verge of banishment as it can be devised that cow breeds from 1947 to 1991 turned from 70 Crore to a few lakhs or a maximum 1 crore.
"It means that almost 97 per cent of cow breeds are either slaughtered or vanished. Now if we considerably look, only 3 per cent of cow breeds are alive presently and if no concrete steps are taken, then there will not remain a single species of cow. The above statement can be considered in harmony with the well-known example where the Indian government decided to export frogs to generate revenue. The same was a big failure as the staple diet of these frogs stated destroying the germinated seeds, leading the government to stop the export of the said frogs and reconsider increasing the population of frogs. This incident also proved fatal to the government as the farmers were compensated for the loss of their produce," the plea read.