The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed a civic official to grant a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for opening a buffalo slaughterhouse in Mandsaur, overruling the local body’s objection based on the city’s religious significance.
In a decision delivered on December 17, Justice Pranay Verma of the Indore bench described the rejection of the NOC on the grounds that Mandsaur is a religious city as “wholly unacceptable.” The judgment came while hearing a petition from Sabir Hussain, a local butcher who had been denied permission by the Mandsaur municipality.
Hussain had applied in 2020 for an NOC to start a buffalo meat business. The chief municipal officer (CMO) had rejected this application, citing a state government declaration from December 9, 2011, that designated a 100-meter radius around Lord Shiva’s Pashupatinath Temple as a “sacred area” where animal slaughter and the sale of meat, eggs, fish, and liquor are prohibited.
However, Hussain’s proposed location for the slaughterhouse is outside this specified sacred area. The High Court noted that the state government’s notification applies only to this limited area, making it unreasonable to consider the entire city as sacred under this declaration.
The court’s ruling emphasized that such restrictions could not be arbitrarily extended beyond the 100-meter radius specified in the notification. It further mentioned that the process for establishing the slaughterhouse had already been initiated by the CMO and was awaiting state government approval.
Justice Verma directed the CMO to issue the NOC, allowing the establishment of the slaughterhouse, subject to compliance with environmental laws, including the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
