New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Assam government while hearing a case against a man accused of transporting beef and it “should have better things to do” than running after such persons.

A bench of Justices A S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan stayed the criminal proceedings against the accused and posted the matter on April 16.

“State should have better things to do than running after these people,” the bench said after the state informed about the meat sample being sent to a lab for testing.

The counsel said after the transportation was intercepted, the driver was unable to answer questions over the nature of the actual product.

“The meat was then sent to a forensic lab,” said the counsel.

The court said that a person who did not have an expert knowledge couldn’t differentiate between packaged raw packed of various animals by just seeing it.

“How will a person know only if there is beef or some other meat? If person is in possession how will he recognise it is meat of which animal? Naked eyes cannot differentiate between them,” said the court.

The accused’s counsel submitted that his client was a warehouse owner and had only transported the packaged raw meat.

Referring to Section 8 of the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, the court said the provision could be invoked only if there was knowledge to the accused that the meat being sold was beef.

The state’s counsel argued that the accused was involved in packaging and selling the meat.

The bench said the matter required a hearing and posted it in April. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)