Kashmiri Brahmin Hindus Seek Complete Ban on Beef Sale in Valley

Srinagar: Kashmiri Brahim Hindus, known as Pandits, have sought a complete Valley-wide ban on beef sale, terming the sight of ‘beef’ hanging on hooks in meat shops across the region as disturbing.

Kashmiri Pandit Sangarash Samiti (KPSS), a body of those Kashmiri Pandits who chose not to leave the Valley in 1990 when a vast majority of the minority community fled their hearth and homes to escape violence, has said that the campaigns and initiatives advocating for bans on liquor sales in Jammu and Kashmir are “commendable and resonate with the social and religious ethos of many but the silence surrounding the rampant beef trade is both disturbing and revealing”.

Sanjay K. Tickoo, president of KPSS, in a signed statement issued here, said, “Over the past 35 years, the unchecked mushrooming of beef shops—openly displaying carcasses—has not only unsettled native Hindus but also Indian Hindu tourists, who form over 95 percent of the region’s tourism economy. The discomfort is real, the questions valid, and yet, the administration remains mute”.

Dr. Sanjay Parva, a Kashmir-born doctor-turned-writer and social activist, in a social media post said, “Selective activism is the new fashion. Dr Sandeep Mawa (a Kashmiri Pandit activist) wants liquor banned. Good! He wants temples freed from encroachments. Great! But when it comes to beef openly hanging from hooks on tourist routes — Mum! Why? Afraid the “secular” tag might slip?”

He added, “Kashmir wants tourists back, but welcomes them with swinging carcasses on tourist routes. Shamelessly brilliant! Maybe next we can install a meat gallery at Srinagar Airport too? Call it “Beef & Beliefs – The Naya Kashmir's Bovine Blend.” !!”

However, the government officials said that most of the meat shops that have mushroomed across Srinagar and other parts of the Muslim-majority Valley over the years sell carabeef or buffen (buffalo meat), not cow beef. “The meat you see hanging on hooks in meat shops across the Valley is either mutton, chevon or buffen, not beef. Likewise, the meats served at barbecue restaurants and kiosks which too have mushroomed over the years include buffen, mutton, chicken and fish”, said an official of the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.

J&K’s own Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), 1932, which, under its Sections 298-A and 298-B, governed the slaughter of cattle in the erstwhile State, said voluntary slaughter of any bovine animal such as cow, ox, bull or calf shall be punished with imprisonment of either description which may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine.

As per the law, first introduced during the autocratic Dogra rule in 1896 and retained by the post-1947 government, the fine may extend to five times the price of the animals slaughtered as determined by the court. Possession of the flesh of slaughtered animals was also an offence punishable with imprisonment up to 1 year and fine up to Rs 500.

In October 2015, a three-judge bench of the J&K High Court had restored the status quo ante of the State’s 120-year-old law, which declared slaughter of bovine animals and sale of beef punishable offences after vacating a Jammu division bench order on the matter and also disposed off the petition seeking abrogation of the law.

The three-judge bench comprising Justices Muzaffar Hussain Attar, Ali Muhammad Magrey and Tashi Rabstan had vacated the order passed by the division bench of the High Court in Jammu earlier and asked police to strictly enforce the relevant provisions of the RPC. It also disposed off the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed before the Srinagar bench of the High Court seeking abrogation of sections 298A and 298B of the RPC with directions to the state chief secretary to take appropriate action on issues raised in the petition.

The order issued by the Jammu bench of the court in September that year had spawned a fiery discourse in the State with various local political parties, including separatists and religious groups based mainly in predominantly Muslim Kashmir Valley asking Muslims to violate the ban. On the other hand, various Jammu-based political, religious and social organizations publicly had vowed to "severely punish" people found involved in cow slaughter or sale of beef. This had only added to existing regional tensions and religious polarisation in the erstwhile State.

However, the RPC was replaced by the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the change that occurred on October 31, 2019, following the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019. With it the IPC became the primary criminal code applicable in Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The IPC does not explicitly mention cow slaughter. Section 429 of the IPC deals with mischief by killing or maiming cattle, including cows, with a penalty of up to five years imprisonment and a fine, or both.

Tickoo while referring to Sections 298-A to 298-D of the defunct RPC said, “These laws reflected the pluralistic sensitivities of the region. But post-2019, following the Reorganization Act, these provisions were repealed under the guise of legal uniformity—ironically stripping Kashmir of its traditional safeguards that upheld interfaith harmony”.

He said, “The KPSS strongly upholds the principle that respect for all religious sentiments must be applied equally and without exception. True secularism—if it is to have any real meaning in Kashmir—must reflect not only in rhetoric but in uniform policy and action”. He added, “In this context, the KPSS asserts that both beef and liquor, along with any other items or practices that offend the religious beliefs of any community or sect, should be banned simultaneously and unequivocally”.

The 'full bench’ of the High Court which had asked the J&K police to enforce beef ban in the erstwhile state was constituted by the then J&K’s Chief Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar. It was asked to hear two conflicting orders of the High Court on the issue.

The move followed a direction from the Supreme Court which had on October 6, 2015 after putting the month-old order of J&K High Court's Jammu bench in abeyance requested the State Chief Justice to set up a three-judge bench to resolve the controversy caused by conflicting approaches of its two benches.

A Srinagar bench of the High Court had while entertaining a PIL seeking striking down of relevant provisions of the RPC which declared slaughter of bovine animals and sale of beef as punishable offences, sought the State's response to the petition and dropped a broad hint that the High Court would not stand in the way of scrapping if the State government so contemplated during pendency of the petition. It had also said that the State Legislature could take up the issue.

The PDP-BJP government quickly moved a special leave petition in the Supreme Court saying the conflicting orders of the High Court "have grave ramifications for the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir as the orders are being misused and interpreted in a manner so as to disturb peace in the state".

A bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy took a judicious approach on the controversy and said, "This is a kind of matter which requires resolution. There appears to be conflict in the approach of two benches of the same high court."

The Supreme Court asked the J&K High Court chief justice to decide whether the two contradictory petitions, one filed in Jammu and the other in Srinagar, required to be heard together by the three-judge bench and also decide where the larger bench should conduct hearing in Jammu or Srinagar. Acting on a separate petition, the apex court refused to shift the hearing of the case to Jammu or elsewhere in the court from Srinagar, the summer capital of J&K.