Senior PDP leader and Member Parliament, Tariq Hameed Karra today said the Supreme Court directive that “the meat ban can’t be forced down someone’s throat” have paved the way for Jammu and Kashmir Government to scrap the archaic sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) on the contentious issue.
“As the Apex Court has made it clear that any order of prohibition has to honor the spirit of tolerance and take into account the sensibilities of people, the landmark decision has paved the way for Jammu and Kashmir government to annul the invidious sections (298-A, 298-B, 298-C and 298-D) of RPC through a legislation,” Karra said in a statement issued here today.Karra said the anti-beef sections of RPC have been enacted in 1932 by the then autocratic ruler of the State and have absolutely no relevance in today’s democratic setup.
“So there is a need and urgency to revisit the discriminatory and bigoted provisions of RPC pertaining to bovine slaughter and sale and purchase of beef in the Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir,” he said and added that all the regional political parties in the State should take a stand on the issue and get these provisions of RPC scrapped through a legislation in the upcoming session of the State legislature.Karra said no law on earth can override the religious code of conduct and same is the case with the RPC sections pertaining to beef. “These sections have to go and should go, sooner the better,” he said and added continuing these obsolete and tyrannical sections of RPC amounts to butchering personal liberties and fundamental rights of the State’s citizens. “This law only curtails and criminalizes the right to profess and propagate one’s religion, which otherwise is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 35 of the Constitution of India,” he said and added that no law on earth can criminalize an act of a citizen, which is provided to him/her by the divine law of nature, in the form of his religious practices and rituals. (CNS)