NEW DELHI, Feb 21: The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Assam government while hearing a case against a man accused of transporting beef and it “should have better things to do” than running after such persons.
A bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan stayed the criminal proceedings against the accused and posted the matter on April 16.
“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.
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The counsel said 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 did not have an expert knowledge couldn’t differentiate between packaged raw packed 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 was a warehouse owner and had only transported the packaged raw meat.
Referring to Section 8 of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, the court said the provision could be invoked only if there was knowledge to the accused that the meat being sold was beef.
The state’s counsel argued that the accused was involved in packaging and selling the meat.
The bench said the matter required a hearing and posted it in April. (PTI)
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No ‘namaz break’ in Assam Assembly after nearly 90 years
GUWAHATI, Feb 21: The decades-old Assam Assembly tradition of a two-hour break to facilitate Muslim legislators to offer ‘namaz’ on Fridays was discontinued for the first time during the ongoing budget session.
The decision to do away with the break was taken in the last session of the House in August, but implemented from this sitting.
Expressing dissatisfaction over it, AIUDF MLA Rafiqul Islam maintained that it was a decision imposed on the strength of numbers.
”There are about 30 Muslim MLAs in the assembly. We had expressed our views against the move. But they (the BJP) have the numbers and are imposing it on the basis of that,” Islam said.
Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia of the Congress said provision can be made for the Muslim MLAs to offer ‘namaz’ nearby on Fridays.
”Today, several of my party colleagues and AIUDF MLAs missed important discussion as they went to offer ‘namaz’. Since it is a special prayer requirement only for Fridays, I think a provision can be made for it nearby,” he said.
The decision to discontinue the nearly 90-year-old practice was taken by the Rules Committee of the House, headed by the Speaker, in August last year.
Speaker Biswajit Daimary, “in view of the secular nature of the Constitution, had proposed that the Assam Legislative Assembly must conduct its proceedings on Fridays like any other day”, which was placed before the Rules Committee and passed unanimously. (PTI)
