Democracy means the protection of minorities and a civilization is judged only by how it treats its minorities, a state high court in India ruled on Friday in a significant pronouncement. 

The Uttarakhand High Court said this while hearing two petitions against a ban on sale and consumption of meat in Haridwar, a Hindu pilgrim town. 
A civilization, the division bench added, is judged only by how it treats its minorities and a ban like the one in Haridwar calls into question the extent to which the state can determine a citizen’s choices, the Times of India reported.

“The issue is whether a citizen has the right to decide his own diet or will that be decided by the state,” Chief Justice RS Chauhan said. “If we say that it will be decided by the state because the state is permitted to impose a total ban on a particular type of non-veg food... then can that power be extended to include meat of all sorts?”

In March, Uttarakhand state, ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had declared all areas in Haridwar “slaughterhouse-free” and cancelled no objection certificates issued to slaughterhouses. The petitions challenged this on two grounds — a blanket ban on the meat of any type is unconstitutional, as was the section the Uttarakhand government had inserted into the UP Municipalities Act, 237A, to give itself the power to declare an area under a municipal corporation or village council a “slaughter-free” zone.

On Friday, State advocate general SN Babulkar cited several judgments supporting the ban, including the 2004 Supreme Court verdict upholding a ban on meat and eggs in the municipal areas of Haridwar, Rishikesh and Muni Ki Reti, towns on the banks of river Ganga that is considered sacred by Hindus. He also played back Article 48 of the Constitution in the Directive Principles, “The State shall … take steps for ... prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.”

The division bench of Chief Justice Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma said, “Democracy does not only mean rule by the majority but, most importantly, democracy means the protection of the minority.” It added, “The greatness of all civilizations is judged only on one yardstick and that is how it treats its minorities.” The court further said it would not go into the religious aspects of the issue and, instead, focus on whether the Constitution protects the privacy of a citizen.

The petitioners had raised this, saying that the ban goes against the right to privacy, right to life and right to freely practise religion. The order, they added, was discriminatory of Muslims in Haridwar, where localities like Manglaur have a substantial Muslim population, the paper said. 

The court said the petition had raised “serious fundamental issues” and would involve constitutional interpretation. It would not, however, be able to give its verdict before the Muslim festival Bakr-Eid, on July 21. The next hearing is on July 23. (SAM)