Ahmedabad: Radhanpur nagarpalika in Patan district of north Gujarat has withdrawn its order directing meat and poultry shops and restaurants serving non-vegetarian food to remain shut for four months, after Gujarat High Court questioned the legality of the directive which was issued following the arrival of three Jain monks in the town for Chaturmas, a sacred period of four months of spiritual discipline.On Thursday, the municipality’s counsel submitted before the court that the authority would not press the notices and orders issued on Aug 17, and all the petitioners’ shops were open. On the municipality’s stand, the petitioner’s advocate withdrew the litigation, albeit after mildly raising the issue of compensation for the loss the shop owners had to bear during the last two months. Justice Nikhil Kariel disposed of the petition after the municipality’s lawyer requested the court not to pass a detailed order.In Aug, Radhanpur’s chief officer ordered 30-odd different-sized slaughterhouses, meat, poultry and fish shops, and restaurants to close their businesses for the next four months because three Jain monks came to celebrate Chaturmas in the town. The order mentioned that as the monks came after 60 years, thousands of devotees from Jain and other communities were likely to visit the town and slaughterhouses were instructed to be closed for four months so that people’s religious sentiments are not hurt.The shop owners moved HC, challenging the closure orders as illegal, high-handed and without any authority of law. They submitted that they had no qualms in closing down their businesses for nine days during the Jain festival of Paryushan, as the Supreme Court has ordered so, it being a reasonable restriction, but the municipality’s four-month closure order does not fall within any such restriction.During the hearing on Tuesday, Justice Kariel asked the municipality’s counsel to keep the chief officer present before the court to say how he would pay compensation to those shop owners for making them shut their businesses for so long.
