Slaughter houses: Environment Ministry fined for inappropriate response
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on Ministry of Environment and Forests for failing to give an appropriate response to its query whether states have set up committees to oversee the functioning of slaughter houses.
A bench comprising justices Madan B Lokur and N V Ramana was irked by the reply that response of the states has not been received as the letter seeking information was sent only last month while the order was passed in March last year.
"The order was passed by this court in March last year and you are sending the letter seeking information about the committees this year. You just tell us whether the state committees are functioning or not and whether any meeting of such panels has taken place or not," the bench said.
After the counsel failed to satisfy the bench's query, it imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the ministry. The bench has been hearing PILs filed by NGO Common Cause and People For Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in 2001 and 2004 respectively.
Common Cause, in its plea, had sought enforcement of standards laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards in IS 8895:1978 regarding the disposal of animal wastes and slurry and IS 1982:1971 regarding ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection of animals.
PETA, in its 2004 PIL, had raised issues relating to slaughter houses across the country. The apex court, last year, had asked the Secretary of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution to inform as to whether the standards that have been laid down require "any review or update and/or modification due to the passage of time".
Prior to this, the court had ordered setting up of state committees for overseeing the functioning of the slaughter houses and later, it nominated the Secretary of Ministry of Urban Development as the nodal officer for coordinating with state committees and obtain information from them.
It had also asked the nodal officer to ascertain and state on affidavit whether all the states have set up the committees in terms of the order passed by the court and whether the broad framework prepared by the MoEF for the state committees for slaughter houses is being followed.
