SC orders no coercive action against Halal Trust over sale of Halal-certified products case

New Delhi [India], January 25 : The Supreme Court on Thursday granted protection from any coercive action against Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Halal Trust chief Mahmood Madani and other office-bearers in connection with a criminal case lodged in Uttar Pradesh in 2023 over the ban on halal-certified products.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta ordered no coercive action by Uttar Pradesh police against Madani and others.
The bench also issued notice on its plea challenging the Uttar Pradesh government's ban on the manufacture, sale, storage and distribution of halal-certified products.
Earlier in January the apex court had issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on two pleas by Halal India Private Limited and Jamiat Ulam e-Hind Halal Trust Maharashtra seeking quashing of notification wherein manufacture, sale, storage and distribution of halal-certified products were banned in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The counsel appearing for Jamiat argued that despite the organisation having already joined the investigation and duly supplied all documents sought, the State government has summoned the president of the trust and asked him to be present in person, without specifying what is needed from him.
To this, Justice Gavai said, "Show them that the Supreme Court is seized of the matter."
"We have pointed it out that the Supreme Court is seized of this matter. They want the president to be present. He is a former Rajya Sabha member... This is completely extra-judicial. Please protect him," counsel told the bench.
The two petitions filed earlier sought direction to quash the November 18 notification Uttar Pradesh's Food Safety and Drug Administration and FIRs registered against them subsequently.
Petitions challenged a ban imposed by the Uttar Pradesh government on the "manufacture, sale, storage, and distribution of halal-certified products" on November 18.
Lucknow police had registered an FIR on November 17 at Hazratganj police station against some organisations, production companies, their owners and managers as well as other unidentified people involved in unnecessarily extorting money in the name of halal certification and promoting enmity in the name of religion and also funding different anti-national, separatist and terror organisations.
Petitioners said they have been implicated despite the fact that they have no role whatsoever to play in connection with the issuance of halal certification.
One of the petitions stated that FIR levies serious allegations against the organisation for promoting halal products by which the companies are trying to bring communal differences among the consumers.
The petition stated that notification is "arbitrary and based on unreasonable classification", and that manufacture, sale, storage and distribution of halal-certified products were banned with immediate effect in Uttar Pradesh from the view of "public health".
"The notification is manifestly arbitrary as it capriciously excludes only halal certification while other certifications such as Jain, Satvik and even kosher have not been included within the purview of the said notification, indicating that it arbitrarily singles out one certification based on religion which is an impermissible classification," the petition said.
The notification has been issued without any adequate principle to determine how halal certification is adversely affecting public health, which is again vague, arbitrary and unreasonable, it added.
"It is submitted that the notification disincentivises the food preference of one particular religion without any rational basis and is therefore contrary to the secular fabric of the nation," the plea further said.