Eating beef not a fundamental right: HC told

Mumbai: It is not a fundamental right of a citizen to eat beef and the state legislation can regulate consumption of flesh of animals, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court.
Advocate General Sunil Manohar made this submission while opposing a bunch of petitions challenging the ban on slaughter of cows, bulls and bullocks, and consumption and possession of their meat, introduced under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act.
He said that the petitioners’ contention that a person can eat anything he wishes to other than human flesh cannot be accepted.
“It is not a fundamental right of a citizen to eat beef.It cannot be said that the government cannot take away these rights. The state legislation can regulate consumption of flesh of any animal the source of which is reprehensible. Under the Animal Protection Act, there is a prohibition on consumption of wild boar, deer and other animals,” Manohar argued.
The petitions have challenged only sections 5 (d) and 9 (a) of the Act, which prohibit possession and consumption of meat of cow, bulls and bullocks even if the animals have been slaughtered outside Maharashtra. (PTI)