The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court granted a four-week stay on the Centre’s notification banning sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets. A division Bench comprising Justices MV Muralidharan and CV Karthikeyan issued the interim order on separate petitions filed by S Selvagomathi, a resident of Madurai, and Asik Elahi Baba, who hails from Kalimangalam near Madurai. 

The judges said a delegated power to legislate by making rules, for carrying out the purposes of the Act, was general in nature, without laying any guidelines. “It cannot be so exercised as to bring into existence substantive rights or obligations or disabilities not contemplated by the provisions of the act,” they said.
The court said there was considerable force in the arguments advanced by senior counsel for the petitioners for granting interim relief sought. The judges were not in agreement with the Assistant Solicitor General that a presumption was in favour of the central government when a particular rule was introduced not by Parliament, but by the Executive.
The counsel for the Centre argued that the aim of the notification was to regulate animal markets. However, the court stayed the Centre’s order and issued notices to both the Centre and state government, asking them to respond in four weeks.