Chicken and other varieties of poultry birds fall in the `animal’ category under the Food Safety and Standards Act, the Gujarat Government recently told the High Court.
It prompted senior lawyer Percy Kavina to represent chicken shops that have faced action for violation of rules to state that in this case, poultry shops will have to engage veterinary doctors to comply fully with the law.
Two NGOs filed a PIL in the High Court in the month of January seeking a ban on the supply of poultry birds to meat shops contending that the birds were illegally been slaughtered in these establishments instead of being sent to slaughterhouses.
Therefore, the HC then directed the authorities to take action against unlicensed meat shops.
The civic bodies raided meat shops across the state and issued closure notices to several of them for violation of rules. Several chicken shops also got shut down during this drive.
The owners of these sealed meat shops and chicken shops approached the High Court for relief.
The division bench of Justice NV Anjaria and Justice Niral Mehta heard these civil applications. During the hearing on these applications on Friday, Government Pleader Manisha Lavkumar stated that the definition of `animal’ under the Act also includes poultry.
The lawyer said that Fish is not included because they are not “slaughtered” but only taken out of the water.
Advocate Kavina stated that the inclusion of poultry in the larger category of meat “goes against the age-old practice of how meat has been sold and consumed.” When poultry birds are slaughtered in a small concealed area discreetly, it should not be banned.
He said that if the chicken is considered to be on par with meat, “chicken shop owners need to appoint a veterinarian to do the stamping (as in slaughterhouses).”
Kavina stated that the “Inclusion of poultry as an animal ignores the way poultry is sold in retail. You are insisting that poultry is meat and therefore it must be checked pre-slaughter and post-slaughter and then it should be stamped. It is impossible for small chicken sellers. He will have to keep a vet there.”
