SC protects cows, no to zealots |
Vigilante `cow protection` groups taking the law into their hands to assault people for allegedly slaughtering cows is becoming a social as well as law and order problem in many states of India. Apart from reservation for backward classes, no issue other than cow slaughter has engaged the Supreme Court`s repeated attention. The Kolkata high court decision held that "Hindu religion is marvellously catholic and elastic... Its social code is much more stringent, but amongst its different castes and sections, it exhibits wide diversity of practice. No trait is more marked of Hindu society in general than its horror of using meat of the cow . Since then, the judiciary has never been able to shake off the cow`s constitutional importance . After independence, Congress governments in states enacted laws prohibiting cow slaughter. The SC had upheld the validity of total ban on cow slaughter. Directive Principles of State Policy set out in Part-IV of the Constitution have to conform to and run as subsidiary to the fundamental rights in Part-III.
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