Hyderabad High Court Judge Wants Cow To Be Declared As 'Sacred' As It's 'Substitute To Mother And God'

Days after a Rajasthan High Court judge said that cow should be declared as the national animal, now a Hyderabad HC judge wants cow to be declared "sacred national wealth" and called it a "substitute to Mother and God". 

The observation came from Justice B Siva Sankara Rao while dismissing the plea of a cattle trader from whom 63 cows and two bulls were seized. Quoting a Supreme Court order, Rao said that it is a settled legal position that there is no fundamental right to Muslims to insist on slaughter of healthy cows on the occasion of Bakrid, reported The Times of India.

He also slammed doctors who make fake certificates declaring them unfit and send them to slaughter houses in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where old and unproductive cows are allowed to be slaughtered if they are certified.

Dismissing the cattle trader's petition whose 65 bovines were seized, Rao said in his order,"Whether a person is entitled to claim interim custody of cows and bulls seized from him when he was allegedly taking them to a slaughter house? This question needs to be posed and answered in view of the national importance of cows which are substitutes to Mother and God," the TOI report adds. 

Last month, the Rajasthan High Court had directed the state government to coordinate with the Centre and take necessary steps to declare cow as a national animal.

A single-judge bench of Justice Mahesh Chand Sharma said the chief secretary and advocate general of the state will be the legal custodians of the cow.