THE GUJARAT government Friday amended the state’s Animal Preservation Bill to entail a maximum punishment of life imprisonment and a minimum of 10 years for cow slaughter after it was passed in the assembly in the absence of the Opposition Congress and with the visitors’ gallery packed with saffron-clad Hindu priests. In the statement of objects of the Bill, the government noted that “it is considered necessary to provide for more deterrent punishment for offences committed by contravening the provisions of the Act and also to make the offences cognisable and non-bailable.”

Under the existing Gujarat Animal Preservation Act 1954, which was amended in 2011 by the then government headed by Narendra Modi, the maximum jail term for cow slaughter was seven years, but not less than three years. The last amendment of the Gujarat Animal Preservation Act (1954) was in 2011 when the punishment was stretched to seven years in prison along with a fine of Rs 50,000 for those found guilty. The Gujarat Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, passed by the Assembly in the absence of Opposition members who were suspended from the House on the last day of the budget session, has also made cow slaughter, transportation of cow or beef and beef products a cognisable and non-bailable offence.
The Indian state of Gujarat passes a law which makes the slaughter of a cow punishable by life imprisonment.