A ban on meat in Amritsar triggers a legal challenge – and rakes up a contentious history
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Rajiv Gulati and his family have been running a fish shop in Punjab’s Amritsar city for 56 years.
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On April 20, the city authorities forcibly sealed the shop in Amritsar’s Hall Gate Fish Market, allegedly without giving him any notice. “This has been our source of livelihood since the time of my grandfather,” said 39-year-old Gulati.
The action was based on a Punjab government notification that disallowed the sale of meat, alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco within the walled City of Amritsar, in effect the area around the Golden Temple.
The order followed the Aam Aadmi Party government’s decision in November last year to declare three cities – Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib and Talwandi Sabo – as holy cities.
Gulati said more than 250 businesses, including small meat vendors, food carts and wholesalers have been affected by the decision in Amritsar alone. “We have been sitting idle since then,” said Gulati. “The government should have given us some alternate space to run our businesses.”
On May 29, Gulati moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging the legality of the closure. “The notifications have no statutory backing,” said advocate Vikas Chathrath, his legal counsel. The petition questioned the state’s power “either to declare an area as a ‘holy city’ or to prohibit...