NEW DELHI, 21 Feb: The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Assam government while hearing a case against a man accused of transporting beef and said that it “should have better things to do” than running after such persons.
A bench of Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan stayed the criminal proceedings against the accused and posted the matter on 16 April.
“State should have better things to do than running after these people,” the bench said after the state informed about the meat sample being sent to a lab for testing.
The counsel said that, after the transportation was intercepted, the driver was unable to answer questions over the nature of the actual product.
“The meat was then sent to a forensic lab,” said the counsel.
The court said that a person who does not have an expert knowledge couldn’t differentiate between packaged raw meat of various animals by just seeing it.
“How will a person know only if there is beef or some other meat? If person is in possession how will he recognise it is meat of which animal? Naked eyes cannot differentiate between them,” said the court.
The accused’s counsel submitted that his client is a warehouse owner and had only transported packaged raw meat.
Referring to Section 8 of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, the court said that the provision can be invoked only if there is knowledge to the accused that the meat being sold is beef.
The state’s counsel argued that the accused was involved in packaging and selling the meat.
The bench said the matter requires a hearing and posted it in April.
