Tripura High Court bans animal sacrifice in all temples of state

Agartala, Ta. Saturday September 28, 2019

The Tripura High Court has declared a ban on the immediate implementation of animal sacrifice in temples. In addition, the High Court had directed to set up a cowshed near the temple for donated cows.

The High Court said that no single sanctuary in the entire Tripura state could offer animal sacrifices from now on. Legal action will be taken against the violator of this order. In 2018, a public interest petition came before the High Court. In a judgment, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Arindam Ghosh declared the ban.

The petitioner, in the petition filed in the court, questioned whether the sacrificial offering of Muga creatures in the temples is considered secular.

The High Court had directed the District Magistrate of West Tripura and all the collectors of the state to immediately stop the animal sacrifices offered at Tripureshwari Temple and the fourteenth deity Bari Temple. To send a video clip of CCTV installed in the temples to the High Court every month.

The government lawyer argued that the tradition has been going on in Tripureshwari temple for the past five hundred years and the faith of the people is connected with it and therefore it is not appropriate to ban this tradition. The petitioner urged the court to immediately stop the practice as cruel and life-threatening.