Article 48 of the Constitution of India

Article 48 of the Constitution of India is one of the Directive Principles which directs the state to make efforts for banning the beef consumption, animal slaughtering, smuggling, and their trading with neighbouring borders. It further states to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines.[1][2]

Directive Principles

Article 48 is included as a “Directive Principle of State Policy”, meant to guide the Indian states in policy formation and its implementation, but could not be enforced in any court.[3]

  1. All the states administered by the Government of India shall take measures for preserving and improving the breed.
  2. The state administration shall make necessary arrangements to re-organize agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines.
  3. The state shall endeavour to prohibit slaughtering and smuggling of cattle, calves and other milch and draught cattle.
  4. The state shall take necessary actions to ban trade of cattle in livestock markets for purposes of slaughter.[4]
  5. The state governments shall be primarily responsible for prevention, detection, registration and investigation of crime and prosecution of cow slaughter.[5]
  6. The states shall prevent slaughtering of animals except in recognized and licensed slaughter houses.[6]
  7. States shall prohibit slaughtering of pregnant animals or animals having offspring less than three months old. Further, the animal which is under the age of three months or has not been certified by a veterinarian that it is in a fit condition to be used commercially, shall not be slaughtered in a licensed house.[7]

Purpose

The purpose of the Article 48 of the constitution of India is aimed to protect the religious sentiments of the Hindu adherents.[8] In view of the persistent demands requested from the related religions, for action to be taken to prevent cattle slaughtering, the government formulated Article 48 for well-being of cattle and to take measures to secure the cattle wealth of India.[9][10]

Petitions filed

The article 48 was challenged in the Supreme Court of India by butchers, tanners, gut merchants, curers and cattle dealers. The petitions were filed in accordance with fundamentals rights as mandated in (Article 19(1)(g)) and religion (Article 25) which were violated by enforcing the Article 48.[11][12][13]

References
    1. "Article 48 in The Constitution Of India 1949". Indian Kanoon. 2016-05-06. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    2. Bhatia, Gautam (2017-06-01). "Cow slaughter and the Constitution". The Hindu. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    3. "Constituent Assembly Debates On 14 November, 1949". Indian Kanoon. 1949-11-14. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    4. Siddiqi, Huzaifa Omair (2020-02-02). "Is there a Hindu bias in India's secular Constitution? A 2005 academic paper suggests as much". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    5. "Slaughtering of Cows". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
    6. "Slaughtering of Cows". Press Information Bureau. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    7. Satwik, Ambarish (2018-09-28). "Holy mother of profit". @businessline. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    8. "Faulted By Design: Cow Slaughter In India And Bank Interest In Pakistan". Outlook India. 2019-02-10. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    9. "Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying". Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying. 2001-08-13. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    10. "Examining the Constituent Assembly Debates on Cow Protection". The Wire. 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    11. Mahapatra, Dhananjay (2017-05-01). "Cow slaughter and fundamental rights: Debate on since 1948". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    12. "Mohd. Hanif Quareshi & Others vs The State Of Bihar(And Connected ... on 23 April, 1958". Indian Kanoon. 1956-05-18. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
    13. "It's Time the Supreme Court Untangled Its Contradictory Rulings on Cow Protection". The Wire. 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
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