 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court lifted the restrictions imposed recently on cattle trade by the central government. The Supreme Court order came in response to four petitions filed by various organizations, one of them being the Old India Kisan Saffa, the largest farmers organization in India. Today we have with us Sufars Chandran, the lawyer representing the Old India Kisan Saffa. Welcome Sufars. The Kisan Saffa's petition said that the central government's order which restricted the cattle trade in India is illegal and unconstitutional. Why was that? As you mentioned, four petitions were there before the honorable Supreme Court. One was filed by Old India Kisan Saffa on behalf of the farmers, the other was Old India Jamiyatul Koreshi Association and one another was by the government of state bungalow and one another one individual from Kerala. All these petitions came together and Supreme Court disposed these petitions together itself. So, the main contentions of Old India Kisan Saffa was the notification dated 23rd May 2017. It is itself illegal and against the constitutional principles because the parent act, the prevention of cruelty to animals act 1960, there is a provision in this act that there is no cruelty if the cattle are slaughtered for the purpose of food or religious purpose. But in the notification, in the impure notification there is a restriction, there is a ban for the slaughtering of the cattle for the purpose of food and religious purpose. So, the it itself contrary to the parent act. So, that was the main argument on behalf of Kisan Saffa and the impure order and this notification, it is violates the rights under article 19 1 G of constitution of India article 21, article 25 and 29. 19 1 G a person has a right to practice his trade and under article 21 also article 25, right to religion and right to have religious purpose all these things. So, all these constitutional provisions, it is this impure notification, it is violates all these things and the another ground which was mainly focused by the Kisan Saffa is its violates the federal principles of our country. The market and due to market, the right is for the state governments for making rules and regulations. But through this notification, the central government is trying to implement some kind of interference, they are trying to interfere to the powers of state legislature. So, these three points one the it is contrary to the parent act and it is violates the constitutional articles principles and third one it is violates the federal principle, federalism principles. We need not to argue much more before Supreme Court because the judges could understand what legality the central government has already done. The central government apparently did not ask the stay imposed by the Madras High Court to be lifted. So, why was that the case? When the matter came up before the Supreme Court, the additional sources general Mr. Narasimha, the senior advocate who appeared on behalf of this central government, he informed the court that there are many issues, there are many complaints. So, we are reconsidering, we will relook into this notification. So, we need time for that. So, then the judges, they were in a mood like ok, the central government is doing something like this. So, then next what they were arguing is already there is a stay from the Madurai bench of Madras High Court. So, the Supreme Court need not to make any kind of extension of stay here. So, that argument we contended in the Supreme Court because after even after Madurai bench stay order, there are many issues were reported in the different parts of the country. So, we pointed out the issues from Maharashtra and some other states. Even after this stay, there are many cases filed against the farmers and traders. So, we requested the Supreme Court to make it clear in its order that there should be a, there is a national wide stay for this thing and which was granted by the Supreme Court and the senior counsel who appeared for the central government, himself he was well aware that if they go for the argument on merits, they will lose the case and it will be a big setback for the central government. So, in that instant, they realize and now they back footed from this, their step and now they will be coming up with a new notification. So, the central government will not stop with this. So, when it says it is going to come up with a new notification, what kind of new, what kind of changes do you anticipate will be there in the rules? Let us see actually this is, this is not a accidental thing. Intentionally, the central government, it is because of the policies, the ideology of the ruling party, BJP and RSS, they want the Cattles Router to be banned, especially the Cows Router to be banned. So, they will try their level best to do it. But as I mentioned before, that is the subject of state, only three states has banned the, there are some other restrictions, but the total ban is only in three states and the states like Kerala, in northeastern states and southern state, not only Kerala, the southern, other southern states also, they will never go for this. So, the central government, BJP and the RSS, they want to impose their ideology through some kind of such actions, such notification and which where they cannot enter directly, because it is the, that is the powers of the state government. So, only just to control the market or just to control these things, they are trying to impose this notification through the prevention of cruelty to animal act 1960. So, they may come up with a new notification and we made it clear in the Supreme Court and the judges also observed that, if they are coming with a notification where we have again some kind of some challenges or some issues, we can again approach the Supreme Court, we have granted that liberty also from the Supreme Court. So, we will be waiting for the new notification, we have already represented, we have made our representation to the Union Minister and now all these petitions, they inform that they will be considering these petitions also, what the contentions and the grounds in this petition, they will consider that also. So, even after considering all these things, even after discussing with all the stakeholders, if they are coming with a notification which is not in the favor of farmers, we will again challenge it before the Supreme Court. So, you just mentioned about the concerns of the farmers, could you tell us a little more about what the grievances on behalf of farmers which were raised by the in this petition. See, we mainly focus the issues of diary farmers and other farmers also. See, what happened with this notification? See, many people are thinking like it is just cattle trade or it is controlling the cattle trade, what is the problem with the farmers. The problem is, for example, when the drought comes, example now just two, three months before there was a drought in Maharashtra, in such occasion the people are not having the livelihood for the human being and in such occasion the farmers cannot keep their cattles with them. So, what they used to do is, they will sell their cattle and they will keep that money safe and when the situation is okay, they will purchase another cattle and they will continue with their work. Through this notification, if I want to sell my cattle in a market, I have to give a affidavit, I have to get a document from the revenue department that I am an agrarian. Then I have to give an affidavit, I am not selling it for the purpose of slaughter and if you are buying it, you also have to give an affidavit that stating that I am not buying it for slaughtering and I will not sell it for the next six months. So, you have to keep it for the next six months and whenever they are asking you to produce it, you have to produce it. So, this is choking out the free moment of this trading and they are now forced to give you some affidavit and these procedures and all these things and this is just to harass the farmers. This is the one thing and the other thing the problem is the milking age of the cattle, it is normally the term of lifetime of a cattle is 20 to 25 years, milking age is only 8 to 10 years. So, the rest of the time, the farmer has to keep it and feed it for and normally when I talk to some farmers, they have to spend at least 70, 80,000 rupees per year for keeping a cattle. So, who will pay the this 10 year there its expense means almost 8 to 10 lakh rupees for just to keeping a cattle which is not productive. So, this is the another problem and in such occasions, but this farmers will they will force to leave the cattle and it will create the strike cattle's number in India which will create road accidents and which will create some problem for the farmers itself. Because if nobody is giving the feed to the cattle, it will go to the fields and it will hamper the these fields So, many issues are there which is not addressed by the government, they are just coming with there some kind of this nonsense ideology just to harm the farmers. Our concerns are totally on the ground of farmers and if they are ready to address in our repetition, there is an alternative prayer. We are saying that even if you want to implement this notification, we do not have a problem, you do one thing there you make some provisions. One, you give a provision for buying the cattle's government has to buy the cattle from the farmers by paying the market value. There should be a mechanism for that and another prayer is you keep proper cattle shelters for you cannot keep means make it as a strike cattle. So, the study says if the government want to implement like these, the government has to spend 5000 crore rupees for only for this for the cattle where in this country the children are dying with malnutrition. Apparently there are some estimates which say that the total expenses to maintain all these unproductive cattle will be more than India's defense budget. Yeah that's true. We mentioned this notification as the second surgical strike on farmers after the demonetization because even the means the Kisan organizations of BJP or RSS backed Kisan organization, they are also fighting on the grounds. They are fighting with us with Kisan Sabha and other organization and many state government has to mean they are like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. There is a huge protest from the side of farmers. So, the government cannot go like this even the government is trying to do it like we will fight it in the court and outside the courts also. So, it clearly is going to be a continuing battle. Thank you Suparsh for joining us and thank you for watching Newsclick.