The Supreme Court has slapped a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on the Gujarat government for intercepting meat containers on NH 8 and registering complaints against the exporters for violating the Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act 2011, which prevents transportation of cow.
The exporters have, in a petition, told SC the meat was being transported from north India to a Mumbai port. In one such case, a division bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Surinder Singh Nijjar pulled up the Gujarat government on Monday and imposed a huge fine for illegally intercepting the export consignments.
The apex court also slapped a penalty of an equal amount on the petitioner. SC imposed the fine after Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) opined the meat was that of buffalos and not of cow progeny, contrary to claims of the Gujarat government.
The meat containers belonging to Royal Exports and Al Quresh Exports were intercepted in Valsad district in February under guidance of animal rights activists and a complaint was lodged at Vapi police station. The exporters approached Gujarat high court immediately. HC sought explanation from the state government, and ordered it not to destroy the meat and send samples to CFSL for testing.
However, before HC could reach any conclusion in these cases, animal rights activist Rajesh Shah and the state government moved the apex court against the HC stay.
SC ordered a fresh test of the meat samples and they were sent to FSL, Hyderabad. However, since there is no facility for this purpose available there, new samples were collected and sent to CFSL, Delhi, which functions under CBI.
The laboratory reports proved that it was buffalo meat and not of cow, as earlier claimed by the exporter. SC came down heavily on the Gujarat government for plunging into the issue wrongfully taken up by animal rights activists and fined them both.
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