A single judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice AK Sikri, on Thursday (August 24) commented that the historic verdict of privacy being a fundamental right will have some effect on the beef ban laws of the country. Justice Sikri was hearing a beef ban case that had come up from Maharashtra.

An inference from the nine-judge bench’s verdict (Justice Sikri was not part of the bench) on privacy was that the government cannot have any control or say on what a person wants to eat in his or her private life.

That directly affects beef ban laws in many parts of the country. The law has created social unrest and even deaths. The Union ministry had also sneaked in a ruling through its environment ministry, stating that sale of cattle will be restricted to sale to dairy farms only and that all traders will have to give written undertakings that cattle sold will not be slaughtered.  Self-styled gau rakshaks have gone on the rampage following this order and have lynched no less than 29 people so far.

Recently, the apex court had stayed the entire ruling.

The next hearing of the beef ban case will be held two weeks later.

—India Legal Bureau