Cattle sale ban: Madras High Court extends stay on notification by a week

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday extended the stay on the Central notification banning the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter in animal markets for a week.

A division bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and Sathish Kumar have issued this direction when the writ petition filed by S Selvagomathy and Asik Elahi Baba from Madurai challenging the constitutional validity of Rules (22) b (iii) and 22 (e) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulations of Live Stocks Markets) Rule 2017, came up for hearing before them for first time here today.

The earlier division bench comprising Justices K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan during their last hearing on July 7 had refused to extend the stay and transferred the case to another bench, because earlier Swaminathan had argued for the same as Assistant Solicitor General for the Central government before being appointed High court judge.

The interim stay order was first issued by Justices M V Muralidharan and C V Karthikeyan on May 30, on the ground that the subject of law under consideration is in the State list under the Indian Constitution.