Judgment

S. R. Das CJI. These 12 petitions under Art. 32 of our Constitution raise the question of the constitutional validity of three several legislative enactments banning the slaughter of certain animals passed by the States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh respectively. The controversy concerning the slaughter of cows has been raging in this country for a number of years and in the past it generated considerable illwill amongst the two major communities resulting even in riots and civil commotion in some places. We are, however, happy to note that the rival contentions of the parties to these proceedings have been urged before us without importing into them the heat of communal passion and in a rational and objective way, as a matter involving constitutional issues should be. Some of these petitions come from Bihar, some from U. P. and the rest from Madhya Pradesh, but as they raise common questions of law, it will be convenient to deal with and dispose of them together by one common judgment.

2. Petitions Nos. 58 of 1956, 83 of 1956 and 84 of 1956 challenge the validity of the Bihar Preservation and Improvement of Animals Act (Bihar Act II of 1956) hereinafter referred to as the Bihar Act. In petition No. 58 of 1956 there are 5 petitioners, all of whom are Muslims belonging to the Quareshi community which is said to be numerous and an important section of Muslims of this country. The members of the community are said to be mainly engaged in the butchers trade and its subsidiary undertakings such as the sale of hides, tannery, glue making, gut making and blood -dehydrating, while some of them are also engaged in the sale and purchase of cattle and in their distribution over the various areas in the State of Bihar as well as in the other States of the Union of India. Petitioners Nos. 1 and 2 are butchers and meat vendors who, according to the petitions, only slaughter cattle and not sheep or goats and are called "Kasais" in contradistinction to the "Chicks" who slaughter only sheep and goats. After slaughtering the cattle these petitioners sell the hides to tanners or hide merchants who are also members of their community and the intestines are sold to gut merchants. It is said that there are approximately 500 other Kasais in Patna alone apart from 2 lacs of other Kasais all over the State of Bihar. The correctness of these figures is not admitted by the respondent State but we do not doubt that the number of Kasais is considerable. Petitioner No. 3 is the owner of a tanning factory and Petitioner No. 4 is a gut merchant, while Petitioner No 5 is the General Secretary of Bihar State Jamiatul Quraish. In Petition No. 83 there are 180 petitioners residing at different places in the State of Bihar who are all Muslims whose occupation is that of Kasais or cattle dealers or exporters of hides. In petition No. 84 there are 170 petitioners all residents of Patna District who are also Muslims belonging to the Quraishi community and who carry on business as Kasais or dealers of cattle. All the petitioners in these three petitions are citizens of India.

3. The Bill, which was eventually passed as the Bihar Act, was published in the Bihar Gazette on 20th April 1953. The scheme of the Bill, as originally drafted, was, it is said, to put a total ban only on the slaughter of cows and calves of cows below three years of age. The Bill was sent to a Select Committee and its scope appears to have been considerably enlarged, as will be seen presently. The Bill, as eventually passed by the Bihar Legislature, received the assent of the Governor on 8th December 1955 and was published in the Official Gazette on 11th January 1956. Section 1 of the Act came into force immediately upon such publication, but before any notification was issued under sub-s. (3) of S. 1 bringing the rest of the Act or any part of it into force in the State or any part of it, the present petitions were filed in this Court challenging the constitutional validity