The ban on beef imposed by the division bench of Jammu & Kashmir high court on a public interest litigation in Jammu has triggered a huge controversy as Hurriyat (G) Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has called for valley wide shut down against the high court verdict on Saturday this week and post Friday protests on Friday.Meanwhile leading constitutional expert Zaffar Ahmad Shah told KNS that the only option left for government to revoke the ban is the scraping of article 298 of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). However differences have surfaced over the issue within the PDP-BJP coalition government over the issue as the assembly speaker Kavinder Gupta has hailed the high court judgment on imposing ban beef and ruled out the possibility of convening a special session of the assembly for scraping the article 298 to make the high court judgment unimplementable.
The PIL filed by advocate Parimoksh Seth said slaughtering and sale of bovine animals is rampant in some parts of the state which severely affected religious sentiments of a section of the society. It further stated that the practice continues despite the fact that provisions of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). Under section 298A of the RPC, intentionally killing or slaughtering a cow or like animal (including ox and buffalo) is a cognizable, non-bailable offence punishable with 10 years imprisonment and fine. Its section 298B says possessing the flesh such an animal is a cognizable, non-bailable offence punishable with imprisonment of one year and a fine. The RPC was enacted in 1862 by the then Dogra king of the state while the IPC also came into force in India the same year. (KNS)