HC takes on record affidavit highlighting GK report ‘Meet the Meat Mafia’, unhygienic chicken imports

Srinagar, Aug 25: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Monday took on record a supplementary affidavit filed in Public Interest litigation (PIL) seeking judicial intervention to curb the sale, storage, distribution, and transportation of rotten, unhygienic, and unsafe meat, poultry, and fish products within Jammu and Kashmir.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal asked the J&K government and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to file a response by September 2 to the PIL and the supplementary affidavit filed by Mir Umar through his counsel, Advocate Shafqat Nazir.

The supplementary affidavit highlights an investigative report, the Greater Kashmir has published in its edition of August 19, 2025, under the title “Meet the Meat Mafia”, besides indicating how the government had failed to curb the transportation and import of hazardous, diseased, and unhygienic dressed chicken into J&K.

The Greater Kashmir report, a copy of which the petitioner has enclosed as an annexure for its perusal by the court in the interest of justice, is not only alarming but has also shocked the collective conscience of society at large, the affidavit says.

As the matter came up, the government, through its senior additional Advocate General Mohsin Qadri, informed the bench that the response to the PIL was ready and would be filed within a day, by August 26.

Observing that the matter is very sensitive, the court requested Senior Advocate Jehangir Iqbal Ganai to assist the court as “amicus curiae,” to which he agreed.

The supplementary affidavit indicates that the practice of “smuggling” rotten, diseased, and unhygienic poultry and meat products into J&K, particularly Kashmir, has been prevalent for many years.

In the supplementary affidavit referred to an order (No IVCOM/Dev/2017-525-32) dated April 15, 2017, issued by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, regarding the clandestine transportation of dressed poultry birds with false labels packed in ice boxes.

In terms of the order, a complete ban was imposed on the import of such dressed poultry birds into Kashmir, according to the petitioner.

According to the affidavit, the departments – Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD), Commercial Taxes, Animal Husbandry and Legal Metrology, were directed to take immediate steps to check fish boxes at the entry points into Kashmir and to confiscate and destroy any poultry being smuggled under the guise of fish consignments.

“The order further directed the concerned departments to undertake market inspections across the Valley to eradicate the menace of smuggling and circulation of such hazardous meat,” the petitioner said.

He said that it was evident that the practice of smuggling rotten, diseased, and unhygienic poultry and meat products has been prevalent for many years.

While the affidavit underscored that despite issuance of directions, the concerned authorities failed to take any concrete or pre-emptive measures to curb such unlawful and unethical practices, it said: “The order dated April 15, 2017, passed by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, came to be challenged before the Court by way of OWP No 532/2017, wherein, vide interim order dated April 29, 2017, the operation of the said order was stayed.

Subsequently, the petition itself came to be dismissed by the High Court vide order on February 17, 2025, for non-prosecution, according to the affidavit.

The petitioner in the affidavit said the J&K government has also exhibited gross negligence in filling up crucial posts of Food Safety Officers across J&K.

“As per information available to the petitioner, against the sanctioned strength of 166 posts, only 56 Food Inspectors/Food Safety Officers are presently in position in the Department,” he said. “As if this acute shortfall in manpower was not enough, the department has also been left handicapped without necessary infrastructure such as inspection vehicles, field samplers, field workers, and Data Entry Operators.”

The petitioner said the “alarming” lack of manpower and resources has rendered the department incapable of effectively implementing the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, thereby “compromising public health.”

He contended that the provisions of the Municipal Corporation Acts applicable to Srinagar and Jammu specifically provide for the establishment and regulation of slaughterhouses in these cities, subject to strict inspection and supervision.

“While the petitioner in the affidavit said it was a matter of common public knowledge that no functional slaughterhouse presently exists either in Srinagar or in Jammu,” he said: “Consequently, all kinds of meat enter the market without undergoing any form of mandatory inspection or quality regulation.”