KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

Certain interested quarters from Jammu wanted to take the beef case home. They had moved an application before the Supreme Court for shifting the case to Jammu. The application was taken up this morning by the Supreme Court and rejected.

The application was moved by the main PIL petitioner Parimkosh Seth, the right wing lawyer who was removed by the J&K government as additional advocate general later. Besides, an NGO that protects cows was also an applicant. They had pleaded that Kashmir has witnessing law and order issues and the beef-related issue has surcharged the situation. They wanted the case to be transferred out of Kashmir.

State government had taken a position that the applicants were in fact seeking review of the earlier Supreme Court order and offered misconceptions about the law and order situation in Kashmir.

Chief Justice of India rejected the plea saying he has already talked to the Chief Justice of J&K High Court and there are no such tensions.

Sources in state law ministry confirmed the dismissal of the application saying the three-judge bench that will decide the case will operate from Srinagar as was decided by the court earlier.

In a PIL filed by Parimkosh Seth, Jammu bench of the High Court had directed the state government to implement the provisions of the Ranbir Penal Code regarding bovine and cow slaughter. A division bench in Kashmir wing, in a separate PIL filed by Prof Afzal Qadri challenging these provisions, had sought responses from the state government.

With two orders n hand, the state government approached the Supreme Court. A division bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Arun Mishr kept in abeyance the directions from the Jammu wing and directed the Chief Justice of J&K High Court to constitute a three-bench judge to decide the case. The High Court constituted the bench comprising Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar, Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey and Justice Tashi Rabstan. The bench is scheduled to hear the case on October 16.

However, Seth and an NGO had approached the Supreme Court with the plea that the case be shifted from Kashmir wing to Jammu. The application was not accepted by the court. Seth had filed the PIL as a member of the Jammu Bar Association. When the court issued directions in his PIL, he had been appointed as additional advocate general. He was later removed by the state government from the position and has now been appointed as a BCCI counsel in the state.

Beef ban, off late, has become a major controversy and Kashmir has already observed a day long strike against the ban. Authorities had to snap internet for three days across the state to prevent uploading of visuals which could trigger communal tensions in the state. State’s penal code has an archaic provision protecting bovines from slaughter. With a section seeking its strict implementation, the provisions have emerged as a key societal debate in Muslim majority J&K where bovines are being consumed throughout.

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